LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



siieif.._:fi.::._ ' 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



GARDENING 

FOR 

YOUNG AND OLD. 

THE 

CULTIVATION OF GARDEN VEGETABLES 
IN THE FARM GARDEN. 



/ BY 

JOSEPH HARKIS, M.S., 

ATTTHOK OP " WALK3 AND TALKS ON THE FAKM," " HAEKIS ON THE PIG," 
"TALKS ON MANUKES," ETC. 



l[ 



ILLUSTRATED. 



rr^ 




JAM s 'laes) 




NEW YORK: 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 

751 BEOADWAT. 
1883. 



v.: ■' 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1882, by the 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 

In the Office ol the Librarian ol Coujjress, at Washington. 



c^^-b 



,2.^ 






CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction 7 

An Old and a New Garden 8 

Gardening for Boys 9 

How to Begin 10 

Preparing tlie Soil 13 

Killing tlie Weeds 13 

About High Farming. 15 

Competition in Crops I7 

Tlie Manure Question 19 

The Implements Needed 21 

Starting Plants in the House, or in the Hot-bed 22 

Making the Hot-bed 25 

Cold Frames 26 

Insects 26 

The Use of Poisons 27 

The Care of Poisons 30 

The Cultivation of Vegetables in the Farm-garden 31 

The Cultivation of Flowers 150 



(3) 



PREFACE. 



I should like to see more seed-growers in the United 
States, and I hope some of my young friends will devote 
themselves to this industry. There are more seeds sown 
in America, in proportion to population, than in any 
other country. European seedsmen, notwithstanding a 
duty of twenty per cent. , find the United States one of 
the best markets in the world. 

It seems to be a fact, that many seeds, when grown 
here, produce much better crops than when grown in 
Europe. Market gardeners give a decided preference to 
American -grown seeds. American -grown cabbage seeds, 
for instance, find a ready sale at double the price of im- 
ported seed. 

Cauliflower seed has hitherto rarely been grown in 
this country successfully, but I understand that Cali- 
fornia is now growing it of excellent quality. Dakota 
is growing cabbage seed, and I feel confident that some- . 
where on this broad Continent, with its great diversity 
of soil and climate, there is not a seed which the Ameri- 
can gardener wants, that will not be grown to perfection. 
The great point is to get what seed-growers call " stock 
seed," to start with. As a rule, you can not buy it. 
You must grow it yourself. Take Cucumber seed, for 
example. Enormous quantities of Cucumber seed are 
grown and sold in America, and yet it is exceedingly 
diflScult to get good seed, pure, and true to name. And 
(5) 



6 PREFACE. 

SO of Watermelon seed. A gentleman in Barnwell, S. 
C, wrote me a few days ago for Watermelon seed, for 
his own use, sufficient to plant one hundred and fifty 
acres. Such a man could afford to pay a high price for 
seed, that was known to be good, rather than to accept 
common seed as a gift. Seedsmen, as a rule, are hon- 
orable men, and would cheerfully pay good prices to a 
careful seed-grower, whose seeds always proved to be as 
represented. 

I would particularly urge some of my young friends 
to turn their attention to seed-growing. They should 
make it the business of their lives, and the earlier they 
commence, the better. They need the best of education, 
the highest moral character, a good stock of patience 
and common sense, the best of land, and above all, a 
hopeful disposition, that will enable them to persevere 
amid manifold discouragements. I know of no industry 
which promises greater success.. None of us, however, 
wish to see American Horticulture degenerate into a 
money-making business. It is preeminently worthy of 
attention for its refining and ennobling influence. I 
have often thought of the words of Hooker, written 
more than three hundred years ago: " The beauty of trees 
when we behold them, delighteth the eye." The beauty 
of flowers elevates the taste, and their cultivation gives 
health and pleasure. J. H. 



GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



INTEODUOTION". 

I first thought of calling this book " Gardening for 
Young Folks," but I found that the young folks of my 
intimate acquaintance, and who are as much interested in 
the book as any one else is likely to be, very decidedly 
objected to the title. And it was at their suggestion that 
I decided to call it '' Gardening for Young and Old " — 
with a mental reservation that it should be principally 
for the Young Folks. 

The fact is, the children are right. It is not '*Gar- 
dening for Young Folks " alone that is required. The 
young would do little without the advice and sympathy 
and encouragement of their fathers and mothers, or 
older friends. And some old folks I know are almost 
as bad, or worse. They can do little or nothing in the 
garden unless they have the young people to help them. 
Tlie fact is, the Old were made for the Young, and the 
Young were made for the Old. 

I know an old farmer who has given up the active 
management of his farm, and who devotes his whole time 
to the garden. It is a small garden, but it is a model of 
neatness and thorough cultivation. Not a weed, or a 
stone, or a stick, is to be found in it ; he has the earliest 
of vegetables and the sweetest of flowers. But there is 
not enough to it, his garden is simply a plaything, but 
it has done one good thing. One of his grandchildren, 
a bright active boy, has a decided taste for gardening. 



8 GAEDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

He sometimes visits me and takes a deep interest in all 
that is going on. He is willing to learn, is not afraid of 
work, and he is ready to adopt a new plan. If his father 
would give him the chance, and the grandfather aid 
him with his experience (as he will), this young man 
will soon have a garden that is a garden ; in fact, he has 
already commenced. He has enclosed about an acre of 
land near the barn-yard, and adjoining the old garden. 
It may not be big enough, but it will do to commence 
with. This young man has been frequently in my mind 
while writing this book. 

AN OLD AlJTD A NEW GAEDEN. 

I want to introduce a new system of gardening. I do 
not wish to do away with the old gardens, but I would 
see new ones on every farm. Moreover, I want to see them 
big enough to admit of the use of the plow, the harrow, 
the roller, and above all, of the horse-hoe, for cultivating 
between the rows of growing plants. I have myself just 
snch a garden, and I have also an old-fashioned garden, 
full of trees, and walks, and bushes, and— weeds. There 
are two or three beds of asparagus that do not amount to 
much. In one corner there is a mass of horse-radish, 
and along the fence there is a row of currant bushes. 
There was formerly a score or more of English goose- 
berries, but the mildew and the Saw-fly have been too 
much for them. We have grapevines growing vigor- 
ously, and here and there a bed of beautiful roses. There 
are beds of thyme, sage, rosemary, parsley, and rhu- 
barb. The latter produces an abundance of seed, but 
only a few somewhat stringy stalks. This bed of rhu- 
barb stands right across a strip of land where, but for it, 
I could use a cultivator to great advantage. We have 
peach trees, cherry trees, pear trees, raspberries, black- 
berries, and strawberry beds. In short, it is a large, old- 



INTEODXTCTION. 9 

fashioned garden. It is no worse than many others, and 
better than some gardens. Trees that I planted with my 
own hands are now fifty feet high. Eows of dwarf apple 
trees, on each side of a twenty-foot walk, in spite of all 
the pruning we could give them, interlock their branches. 
I would not destroy the old garden. It has been a source 
of much pleasure, and it is still not without its attractive 
features. But there is not a crop in it that does not cost 
more than it is worth. In spite of all the hoeing we can 
give it, by the time we are through with the harvest the 
garden is full of weeds. 

I have another garden, several acres in extent, with 
only a fence between it and the old garden, to which it 
presents a decided contrast. I will not boast, but I think 
there are more weeds on a square rod in many parts of 
the old garden than could be found on a whole acre of 
the new. This is simply because we have room enough 
for all the modern tools for preparing the land, drilling 
in the seed, and cultivating the crops. Wherever the 
plow and the cultivator can be used, we get good crops, 
and clean land, and if not, not. 

GAKDENINQ FOE BOYS. 

I want to interest the boys in gardening. I would like 
to have them start with new land and new methods. 
Select the best piece of land you have. I do not care 
how big it is. Three or four acres is none too much. 
The amount of work required will depend on the kind 
of crops to be raised ; you can raise an acre of sweet 
corn, or an acre of early potatoes, or an acre of late 
cabbages, with half the labor required to raise an acre of 
onions. Let the garden be big enough, and if you fear 
you can not command sufficient labor to grow the more 
expensive crops, then devote the larger portion of the 
ground to those crops which can be kept clean almost en- 



10 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

tirely by the use of the cultivator, and aim to have some 
of the crops come in early, and some to mature late, so 
that all the work of gathering the crops will not have to 
be done at one time. 

Even if you are sure of the labor, it is a good plan at 
first to grow crops with which you are most familiar, and 
which do not require excessively rich land. It takes 
some years to get land in the very best condition for 
many of our best garden crops. Even such a common 
crop as early cabbages will do better on land that has 
been heavily manured two or three years, and occupied 
each year with cabbages, than can be grown on new 
laud, no matter how heavily it may be manured. The 
same is true of onions; old onion land, provided it is 
well manured every year, is proverbially better for this 
crop than new land. 

I want the boys to engage in gardening, because they 
are young and can afford to wait, but more especially be- 
cause they will be more likely to adopt new processes, 
and will be willing to bestow the necessary care and 
labor in preparing the land. I can not insist too much 
on the importance of this matter, not only at first, but 
in the years to come. 

HOW TO BEGIN. 

If the land selected for a garden is not naturally well, 
drained, it must be under-drained. Without this, suc- 
cess is impossible. Fall plowing is of great importance, 
and I do not mean by this simply turning over the soil 
with a plow, and letting the furrows lie undisturbed un- 
til spring. If it is sod-land, it should be plowed deep 
and well, as early as possible, and the surface afterwards 
harrowed and rolled, cultivated and again rolled, and 
harrowed again, until there are four or five inches of loose 
mellow soil. If the plowing was done so early that the 



IISTTEODUCTION'. 11 

sod is SO rotted that it can be cross-plowed before winter 
gets in, all the better. It can not be plowed too often in 
the fall. All stones and rubbish must be remoyed. 

ABOUT MANURES. 

The application of manure is no doubt a yery impor- 
tant matter, but in many cases a still more important 
one is, how to get the manure. "We neyer haye all we 
could use to adyantage. Unless we buy manure, we 
must rob some other part of the farm in order to enrich 
the garden. Mos^ farmers will be startled at this propo- 
sition. In many cases, however, it is the true plan. A 
farmer w^ith a hundred acres of land could use all the 
manure he makes on a ten-acre field devoted to garden 
crops. He could use phosphates on the farm, and ma- 
nure and phosphates in the garden. On the farm he 
could enrich his land by summer-fallowing and plowing 
under green crops. The more stock he keeps, and the 
more grass, corn, oats, peas, mustard, rape, and millet 
he grows and consumes on the farm, the more manure 
he will make. In many cases he could with advantage 
buy food to feed his stock. 

My own plan is, to rot the manure by making it into 
heaps five feet wide and about five feet high, and of any 
desired length. It is piled in the barn-yard as fast as it 
is made. In the winter we draw these piles into the field 
where the manure is to be used, and make it into other 
piles five feet wide and five feet high, as before, being 
careful to carry the heaps up straight and square, so that 
the top shall be as wide as the bottom. If you do not 
insist on this being done, the teamsters will make the 
heap like the roof of a house, and before spring the ma- 
nure will be frozen solid. On the other hand, if the heap 
is carefully made, the manure will decompose and keep 
warm, and be in splendid condition for use early in the 
spring. 



12 GAKDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD; 

PBEPAEING THE SOIL. 

In preparing land for a garden, as before said, we can 
not plow it too much in the autumn. If the land can 
not be got into good condition in the fall, it certainly can 
not be done in the spring. This is true not only of new 
land, but of old garden land. Said an old gardener and 
seed- grower tome the other day: "The longer I live, 
the more am I convinced of the importance of fall plow- 
ing. It makes the land cleaner, and you are ready to 
commence work much earlier in the spring." 

I know a farmer who wished to make a large field- 
garden, who selected a good piece of land, and plowed it 
up in the spring and sowed it to buckwheat, and when 
the crop was in flower, he plowed it under and seeded it 
again to buckwheat. He had an immense crop, but he 
managed with a good plow and chain to turn it under. 
He then, in August, or the first of September, sowed the 
land to rye, and the next spring, about the middle of 
May, he plowed under the rye. The land was wonder- 
fully mellow and full of vegetable matter, and he had a 
grand piece of land on which to commence gardening 
operations. By the aid of a little phosphate it is easy 
to grow good sweet corn, melons, cucumbers, beets, and 
late cabbages on such land. 

Gardeners who live near a city where land is high, 
will think they can not afford to let their land lie idle. 
They will prefer to buy manure rather than plow under 
green crops. But m the country, where we wish to start 
a field-garden, and can not buy manure, there can be lit- 
tle doubt but that we can very cheaply enrich the land 
by plowing under such crops as buckwheat, white mus- 
tard, and rye. I do not say that we can make land very 
rich m this way, but we can fill it full of vegetable 
mould, and at the same time make the soil clean and 
mellow. The system of gardening I wish to advocate in 



INTEODIiCTION. 13 

the country is based on the idea of having a large gar- 
den, only a part of which is necessarily occupied by 
crops which j-equire a maximum amount of manure. I 
want the garden so large from the start, that the whole 
of it may be very thoroughly plowed and subdued and 
brought into good shape, and be ready at any time to re- 
ceive such garden crops as we may wish to grow. 

It will do a farmer good — it will certainly do his boys 
good — to have such a piece of land or field, where the 
very best system of cultivation is adopted. Very few 
farmers know what really good cultivation means. I am 
myself a farmer, and the son and grandson and great- 
grandson of a farmer, and mean no disrespect to farmers 
when I say that most of us have very little idea of how 
much land can be improved by thorough cultivation and 
high manuring. 

KILLING THE WEEDS. 

The first year I came upon the farm where I now live, 
there was a field of ten acres of wheat. The field was 
seeded to clover, but the clover was killed out, and the 
wheat stubble was one mass of Quack-grass. I had had 
considerable experience with this under-ground weed, 
and I was determined to kill it, and I did kill it. The 
field to-day is occupied with garden crops, and there is 
not a spear of Quack in it. It so happened that at one 
of the meetings of our Farmers' Club, the question un- 
der discussion was. How to kill Quack-grass? It was 
stated that land near Eochester, worth five hundred dol- 
lars an acre, was so overrun with Quack as to be almost 
worthless for cultivation, and some of the speakers 
thought it would have to be abandoned. I was innocent 
enough to get up and tell the method I had just used for 
killing Quack on my own farm. " As soon as the wheat 
crop was off," I said, " I plowed the land, and then har- 
rowed it, and rolled it and harrowed it again until it 



14 GAEDENIIS"G FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

presented quite a respectable appearance on the surface. 
The Quack, after the autumn rams, began to grow, and 
I cross-plowed the field with a steel plow. The grass was 
so thick and matted that the plow did riot make very 
good work, but as the weather still continued dry, we 
^ere able to work the surface into good shape by the 
use of a thirty-two toothed harrow, which was the only 
kind we then had. (A Smoothing Harrow, with its 
seventy-two slanting teeth, would have made far bet- 
ter work, with half the labor.) We kept harrowing it 
and cultivating it as opportunity offered, and about the 
last of November we plowed the land again, and left it 
rough for the winter." 

As I talked, it was amusing to watch the expression on 
the faces of the farmers present. They did not seem to 
know whether to laugh or sneer, but I imagine they 
thought it would be better to let the Quack retain pos- 
session of the land, rather than to spend so much time 
in plowing and working it. And I then said: "In the 
following spring we plowed the field again, and then 
harrowed and cultivated and harrowed and rolled until 
the land was completely covered with the dry roots of 
Quack, which we raked together in windrows and heaps, 
and then set fire to them. Afterwards we plowed the land 
once more, harrowed and rolled it, and drilled it in with 
beans." At this point even the intelligent Secretary of 
the Club, and an able agricultural writer, could not re- 
strain a look of amazement, that any man could be so 
destitute of all sense of jii'opriety as to recommend any 
such a system. But after twenty years' experience, I am 
prepared to say that the plan was a good one. I had a 
noble crop of beans that summer, and a good crop of 
wheat afterwards. From that day to this the field has 
been the best on the farm, and will pay a higher interest 
on five hundred dollars an acre than it would have paid 
at that time on fifty dollars. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

I do not say that the whole of this result has been 
brought about by this extraordinary number of plo wings 
used to kill the Quack, but I feel quite certain that this 
was the starting point and basis of the improvement. 
One boy may spend his winter evenings with idle com- 
panions, and another at home reading a few good books. 
The one is never heard of afterwards, the other is the 
President of a University. I do not say that the books 
he read that winter evening made him the* useful and 
distinguished man he is, but it was the first of a series 
of steps which led to honor and renown. 

I have spent a great deal of labor on this piece of land, 
but it has paid for itself from the start; and what I have 
done myself, I urge others to do, even though the wise 
men may shake their heads. 

ABOUT HIGH FAEMING. 

We have now far better tools for cultivating land than 
formerly. In fact, our tools are better than our agricul- 
ture. And we may rest assured that so soon as we adopt 
improved methods of farming and gardening, our inven- 
tors and manufacturers will furnish all the tools, imple- 
ments and machines necessary to do the work. 

But will it pay to adopt high farming ? That depends 
on what we mean by high farming. High farming, if 
we confine ourselves to the production of hay, Indian 
corn, wheat, oats, and other ordinary farm crops, will 
not pay in this country. And Sir John Bennett Lawes 
once wrote a paper or gave a lecture before a Farmer's 
Club in Scotland, in which he demonstrated that high 
farming was no remedy for the low prices of agricultural 
products in Great Britain and Ireland. I think, how- 
ever, he would admit that thorough cultivation and 
heavy manuring could be profitably used for the produc- 
tion of what we usually term garden products. 

Some years ago I was at an agricultural dinner in 



16 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

England, when the late J. J. Mechi, who had for many 
years recommended high farming, stated that, notwith- 
standing the low price of agricultural products, he was 
at that time picking several acres of peas for the Lon- 
don market, and he found the crop a very profitable one. 
Dr. Gilbert, one of the ablest agricultural chemists of 
the world, called out: "But, Mr. Mechi, this is not 
farming, it is market gardening." Mr. Mechi, though 
always ready, made no reply. He seemed to think that 
the argument was unanswerable, and he let the case go 
by default. But not so the coming generation of farm 
boys — and I hope of English boys also. What does it 
matter whether you harvest your peas dry or pick them 
green ? What does it matter whether you raise cab- 
bages, corn or carrots, and other roots, to be fed out on 
the farm to animals, or to be sold in market to our fellow 
citizens, who can not grow them for themselves ? 

The advocates of high farming make a mistake. Nei- 
ther England nor New England will ever raise all the 
wheat required by its population. Even the great State 
of New York, I ho]De, will not long continue to raise on 
its own soil all the wheat it annually consumes. Com- 
merce is the feature of the age, and wheat is carried ten 
thousand miles to market. Cheap bread is what the 
world wants, and what the world wants, the world will 
get. Cheap wheat can never be furnished by high farm- 
ing. It must and will be grown largely on land manured 
only by nature. There may be places in which wheat 
can be profitably grown, where many of the constituents 
of the plant must be applied to the soil, just as there are 
places where we can profitably use chemical processes for 
the production of ice. As a rule, however, nature and 
commerce will furnish ice cheaper than even modern 
science can manufacture it. We shall have two kinds of 
farming. One will consist largely in the production of 
wheat, corn, oats, barley, cotton, sugar and rice. The 



INTRODUCTIOIT. 17 

other, while it will not entirely neglect these great pro- 
ducts, will aim to produce crops which can not be kept 
from year to year, or ordinarily be transported long 
distances. 

The one system of farming will be carried on with lit- 
tle labor, and little or no manure. And what manure is 
used will be for the purpose of enabling the plant to ab^- 
stract as much food as possible from the soil. In other 
words, our wheat growers may use superphosphate, be.- 
cause the application of phosphoric acid may enable the 
wheat plant to get a larger quantity of potash, nitrogen, 
and other constituents of plant food from the soil, and 
thus to produce larger crops. This is the very reverse of 
high farming, though it is often very profitable farming. 
The other system of farming is the one which I want our 
young men to adopt. The change will be gradual, but 
it will surely come. It will be adopted in England, and 
also here. It is absurd to suppose that the soil of Eng- 
land, or of the New England or Middle States, can not 
be profitably cultivated, owing to the low prices at which 
the cheap land of the West and Northwest, aided by 
cheap transportation, can furnish our people, and the 
people of New England, with bread. Let the bread 
come, and let us provide good Jersey butter to eat with 
it. The world as a world spends all it can get, and the 
less it spends for bread the more it can pay for buttoa: 
and bonnets, and the bonnet-makers will buy our fruit 
and vegetables. 

COMPETITION IN CROPS. 

One thing is certain, we can never get high average 
prices for wheat, or for any other product which can be 
grown in all parts of the world, and which will keep 
from year to year. The farmers of America will never 
realize extravagant profits from any crop, the value oi 
which is determined by the price it will bring in Eng- 



18 GAKDENING FOE YOUNG AlfD OLD. 

land. Any crop which is entirely consumed at home 
will be likely to bring a fair price, and very frequently 
the price will be determined by the cost at which the 
article can be brought to our markets from Europe. 
This was so last year in the case of potatoes and cabbages. 
Suppose some of my young friends had had a ten-acre 
field-garden in high condition, filled with potatoes, cab- 
bages, celery and cauliflowers, not to mention other gar- 
den crops. In spite of the drouth and the Colorado- 
beetle, such a field-garden, prepared, enriched and culti- 
vated, as I have recommended, would have produced 
three hundred bushels of potatoes per acre. The ex- 
pense of planting, cultivating, hoeing and digging of 
these would not exceed thirty dollars per acre, while it 
would have been an easy matter to have sold the crop 
for from three hundred to four hundred dollars per acre. 
So with cabbages. It would not have been a difficult mat- 
ter to grow five thousand good heads of cabbage per acre, 
which could readily have been sold at ten cents per head. 
The planting, cultivating, harvesting, burying for the win- 
ter and marketing would not cost over one cent per head, 
thus affording a profit of four hundred and fifty dollars 
per acre. This is five per cent interest on nine thousand 
dollars per acre. We can afford to smile at those who 
sneer at us for plowing our land four or five times to 
destroy weeds and get it into good shape for starting a 
good field-garden. Celery and onions would have afforded 
still higher profits. Even a few acres of turnips would 
have made no slight addition to our finances. What has 
been will be. It may be some years before potatoes and 
cabbages are again imported into the United States from 
Europe. It is not at all flattering to our vanity that this 
vast continent, with, its rich land, brilliant sunshine and 
energetic people, should be obliged to send to the high- 
priced land of Holland for its sauerkraut, or to Scotland 
for its potatoes. But we need not fear that the products 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

of our field-gardens will not command profitable prices 
for years to come. Our population . is increasing faster 
than we can get these field-gardens prepared for the pro- 
duction of the choicer kinds of garden products. There 
is scarcely a village in England or America which is sup- 
plied with all the fresh fruits, flowers and vegetables 
which the people would take, if they were furnished in 
good condition and at moderate prices. 

THE MANURE QUESTION. 

As already said, the real difficulty in starting a field- 
garden is to get enough manure. We must use all we 
can scrape up on the farm, and buy all we can get from 
towns and cities and slaughter-houses, at moderate prices. 
In addition to this we must plow under a few acres of 
green crops, and supplement them with liberal purchases 
of superphosphate of lime and other artificial fertilizers. 
After we get our field-garden fairly started, it will be a 
comparatively easy matter to maintain and increase its 
productiveness. I do not mean by this that we can ever 
dispense with the use of a large amount of manure. We 
shall never be able to do so. We may make it cheaper 
than we do now, or we may be able to use artificial fer- 
tilizers with great advantage and economy, but the nature 
of plants does not change. Early cabbages can never be 
grown early and of fine quality, except on land supplying 
in available condition an abundant amount of plant food. 
All we can hope for is to discover how this great store of 
plant food can be turned to account after we have grown 
an early crop of cabbages. Our Experimental Stations 
will, sooner or later, give us valuable information on this 
point. 

At present we know that it is absolutely necessary to 
make our field -garden soil excessively rich. We can not 
adopt high farming in the production of corn and wheat. 



20 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

or oats and peas. Four-fifths of our land will be used as 
it is now, to produce such crops as good tillage will af- 
ford, aided by the use of moderate dressings of artificial 
fertilizers. Wherever profitable we shall increase the 
use of lime, ashes and plaster, composted it may be with 
muck from our swamps. 

There is nothing new in all this, for farmers are doing 
the same thing now. They make a little manure, and they 
apply it first to one field and then to another. The change 
I wish to make is to apply the manure to one field only, 
year after year. I want to introduce the highest kind 
of "high farming" on a small scale and for special crops. 
I do not care what the crops are. Even tobacco may 
be grown in this way, but I do not want to have anything 
to do with the article. There are better crops to grow, 
and crops which require as much skill and labor and brains, 
and which will yield larger profits. As a rule, the crops 
which require the most labor must have the best land 
and the heaviest manuring. This is preeminently so in 
this country, where labor is high and ordinary land cheap. 
At first it will be well to devote the field-garden to crops 
which require comparatively little labor and manure. 
Sweet corn is such a crop, and so are tomatoes, potatoes, 
beans and late cabbages. The latter crop requires good 
rich land, but it can be grown in ordinary seasons, with 
little more than good farm management. If you have 
any fears that the land is not rich enough to produce a 
good crop of late cabbages of the large varieties, plant 
such varieties as the Winningstadt about the middle of 
July. 

Melons and cucumbers and squashes can be grown by 
the use of a little manure in the hill, aided by a table- 
spoonful of superphosphate. 

Onions must have rich land, and it will be well not to 
go into this crop too extensively the first year, but I 
would, by all means, sow some in order to get acquainted 



iKTRODiJCTioi;r. 21 

with the crop. And so of all other crops you ultimately 
expect to grow. A little experience will soon enable one 
to grow them successfully. 

THE IMPLEMENTS NEEDED. 

The expense of starting the field-garden will consist prin- 
cipally m labor, manure, and seeds. The implements re- 
quired are found on every well-managed farm, with the 
exception of a very few. 

We shall need a good plow, harrow, roller, cultivator, 
marker, garden line, seed drill, rake, hoe, transplanting 
dibble, watering can, potato hook, spade, and fork. These 
are all necessary, but are already on hand. Amongst the 
implements not so common, but which, in my own case, I 
should hardly know how to dispense with, are the Acme 
Harrow, a Smoothing Harrow, the Gang Plow, and a new 
Eevolving Harrow and Smoother, made by an extensive 
onion grower in Connecticut. The latter is the best 
new implement I have tried for many years. Like the 
original Smoothing Harrow, it is a somewhat crude afiair, 
but it contains the elements of an exceedingly useful 
and valuable machine. I have had three Smoothing 
Harrows, and each one is better than its predecessor. 



22 GA.EDENING FOE YOUNG AKD OLD, 

STARTING PLANTS IN THE HOUSE OR 
HOT-BED. 

In the absence of a propagating house, much may be 
done in the way of starting early plants in one's dwelling 
or hot-bed. The principal impediment commonly experi- 
enced is in the difficulty of obtaming, in the spring, the 
proper kind of soil or compost to put in the boxes or hot- 
bed. Professional gardeners prepare the soil with great 
care the preyious year, but if winter is about to set in, 
and you have nothing ready, excellent results may be ob- 
tained by placing in the cellar a load or two of any 
good light sandy loam; the lighter and richer the bet- 
ter. In the spring, before using it, run it through a sieve, 
so as to remove all ston(^s and lumps and rubbish. If 
you have it, mix a tablespoonful of superphosphate to 
each half bushel of soil; then get some peat — moss, or 
Sphagnum, such as nurserymen use for packing — dry it 
thoroughly, and sift it fine, and to each peck of soil put 
two or three quarts of this fine, dry sifted moss; mix 
carefully, and you will have as good a material for start- 
ing fine seeds as I have ever used. 

Leaf-mould is a very fair substitute for moss. It 
contains much plant food, is light and porous, and re- 
tains considerable moisture. By leaf-mould, I do not 
mean muck from the swamp, but the decomposed leaves 
and sand scraped up in the woods. Leaf-mould, like muck, 
varies considerably in composition and value. The best is 
obtained from Beech, Maple and Oak woods. The leaf- 
mould should be gathered the previous summer and kept 
in the cellar until wanted. Before using, it should be 
mixed with equal parts of sand and sifted. For merely 
starting plants, rich soil is not essential. Seeds will ger- 
minate in moss and sand as well as in the richest mould. 
After the plants are started and begin to grow, a little 



STAETING PLANTS IN THE HOUSE OS HOT-BED. 23 

plant food is necessary, and in this case leaf-mould is bet- 
ter than moss. Equal parts of sods, sand and well-rotted 
manure made into a compost and worked over, and 
sifted until it is fine, is a favorite material for potting 
plants. 

Dried muck from the swamps is an exceedingly useful 
material for the gardener. In many sections of this 
country it can be obtained at little more than the cost of 
cutting, drying, and carting it. No gardener ever has 
too much of it. It has many excellent properties. It 
will make heavy soil light. It will make dry soil moist. 
It will make cold soil warm. It is an excellent absorb- 
ent of water and gases. It is itself a manure, and can 
be used to great advantage in our stables, cow-houses 
and pig-pens, as well as for mixing with manure in our 
compost heaps. The practical difficulty is in getting the 
muck dry and keeping it dry. We want a place for stor- 
ing it, and above all we want to form the habit of getting 
muck and using it on our farms and gardens. No one 
doubts its value, but we hardly know how to commence 
its use. It is, however, a very simple matter. We usu- 
ally throw up the muck in the summer and let it lie in 
a heap until winter, when we have plenty of leisure to 
draw it. Another plan is to throw it up in July, turn it 
over a few weeks later to facilitate the drying, and early 
in the fall, before heavy rains set in, draw it to a shed, or 
cellar, or barn, where it can be kept dry and ready for 
use at any time. The farmer who has a good supply of 
dried muck on hand will find it of great use in many of 
his gardening operations. 

The boxes I have used for starting plants are two feet , 
and one half long, twelve inches wide, and three inches 
deep, made of half-inch stuff. A screw at each end, 
about an inch from the top on the outermost corners, is 
wound round by a piece of wire two feet eight inches 
long, the other end of the wire being twisted round to a 



24 



GAEDEITIITG FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



screw fastened to the casement of the window, as shown 
in the illustration (Sg. 1). These boxes are placed on the 
sill of the window. The length of the box, of course, 
being determined by the width of the window, it can be 
made wide or narrow according as you have more or 
less room in the house. There may be windows where 
you could have them two feet wide without inconven- 
ience; if so the plants will do just as well, and the 
boxes, of course, will hold twice the number of plants. 
I have had better success in starting plants in these boxes 
in the house, than in a hot-bed as ordinarily managed. 
The plants are in sight all the time, and are less liable to 




Fig. 1.— WINDOW-BOX. 

be neglected. The children, especially, soon learn to take 
an interest in these plant-boxes in the house. They require 
a little assistance in sifting the soil and moss, and putting 
it in the boxes, and in fastening the boxes in the window- 
sills. But they can sow the seed and cover it with a lit- 
tle sifted moss themselves. It is very desirable, how- 
ever, to write the names of the seeds to be sown, with the 
date of sowing, on some wooden labels to mark the rows 
where the different seeds and different varieties are sown. 
If this is neglected much of the interest will be lost. 



STAETING PLANTS IN THE HOUSE OE HOT-BED. 25 
MAKING THE HOT-BED. 

Whether plants are or are not started in boxes in the 
house, a hot-bed will be found very useful. If possible 
this should be placed where a hedge, a fence, or building 
breaks the force of the wind, admitting at the same 
time the full rays of the sun. A large quantity of 
manure is not necessary. 

The hot-bed should be covered with five or six inches 
of light, well prepared soil, and moss or leaf-mould, or 
dryed and sifted muck, or a compost of rotted sods, etc. , 
as previously described. There are two methods of 
making a hot-bed. One is to stack fermenting manure 
on the surface, taking care to build it up regularly 
and solidly, distributing the long and short manure 
evenly. Add the manure in layers of about six inches, 
beating each one down with the fork. The pile should 
be two or two and a half feet high, with square solid 
sides, and should be two feet wider and longer than the 
frame of the hot-bed, as the center is hotter than the out- 
side, which is exposed to the cold air. Another method, 
and one economical of manure, is to dig a pit two feet 
wider and longer than the frame. The manure is care- 
fully placed in this excavation, being trodden down even- 
ly and solidly. The management of the hot-bed requires 
some experience, especially in regard to ventilation and 
the degree of heat needed by different classes of plants. 
Cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, radishes and celery require 
only a moderate degree of heat, while cucumbers, egg- 
plant and peppers delight in a soil as warm as your 
hand, and an atmosphere during the day warmer and 
more moist then the hottest room. Tomatoes and such 
flower seeds as phlox, petunia, verbena and aster need 
a warmer soil than the cabbage, but not so hot as the cu- 
cumber. Cucumbers and plants requiring the strongest 
heat should be placed in the center of the bed, while the 
2 



26 GAEDENING FOE TOUISTG AKD OLD. 

cabbage should be placed nearer the outside, either on the 
top or bottom, where they can be more readily cooled off 
by opening the sash. If the bed is very hot, more 
water will be required, and the sash will have to be 
open longer during the day. If the bed is too cold it is 
well to surround the outside of the frame with warm 
manure, and at night cover the sash with a straw mat or 
blankets; and use only water fully up to blood heat. If 
the plants are drawn up — if they are tall and thin rather 
than stout and stocky, it is a sign that the plants are 
either too thick or the bed too warm. They want fresh 
air and abundance of sunshine. 

COLD FRAMES. 

A cold frame is simply a frame and sash of a hot-bed 
without any manure underneath. Cold frames are quite 
useful for hardening off plants, but it costs very little 
more to place a foot or two of manure underneath them, 
and in our climate a little bottom heat is often very de- 
sirable. We can harden off the plants sufficiently by 
taking off the sash in whole or in part. A well sheltered 
spot in the garden with a warm sunny exposure is not a 
bad substitute for a cold frame. 

INSECTS. 

I am not going to write about insects. I will leave 
that to the professional Entomologist. "We need to know 
the habits of the various insects which injure or destroy 
our crops. Last winter one of my neighbors. Col. B., 
during the busy part of my seed business volunteered to 
help me by answering letters. He was not used to the 
business and sometimes got out of patience. One man 
wanted to know how much onion seed to sow per acre ? 
another the proper time to sow mangels ? another 



INSECTS. 27 

whether it was necessary to sow celery in the hot-bed ? 
these and many other similar questions the Colonel, with 
a little prompting on my part, managed to answer to his 
own satisfaction, and I hope to the satisfaction of my 
correspondents. But one man wanted to know the best 
way to kill Cabbage-worms ! I was busy at the time and 
the Colonel thought he would not bother me, and so he 
wrote somewhat as follows : "Dear Sir — The best way 
to kill Cabbage-worms is to shoot them. Eespectfully 
yours, Joseph Harris, per B." 

I do not know who my correspondent was, and do 
not know whether he applied the Colonel's remedy. No 
one but a military man would have suggested it. The 
real trouble is to know where to shoot. It is certainly 
useless to attack in this way the worms themselves, but if 
the Colonel meant to have a few days sport with a double 
barrelled shot-gun, in shooting on the wing the white 
butterflies which lay the eggs that produce the green 
Cabbage-worm, the remedy might be popular with the 
boys. Killing the butterflies, or catching them with 
nets, is the true way to get rid of the Cabbage-worm. 

On my own farm I do nothing to check the ravages of 
the Cabbage-worm except to dust the plants while the 
dew is on, with a mixture of plaster and superphosphate, 
say two parts of plaster to one of superphosphate. I am 
not sure that it lessens the number of worms, but at any 
rate it stimulates the growth of the plant, esjjecially if 
you hoe the mixture into the ground around each plant. 
The only practical remedy I have ever tried is heavy 
manuring and thorough cultivation, and setting out 
plants by the thousand, instead of by the hundred. 

THE USE OF POISOIfS. 

With melons, cucumbers, and squashes, the Striped- 
bug is a great pest. We all get angry enough at them 



28 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

to shoot them, but Hellebore and Paris Green are more 
effective implements of destruction than the rifle and 
shot-gun. As soon as the plants appear, it is a good plan, 
while the dew is on these, to dust them with White Helle- 
bore powder. Paris Green is a more powerful remedy, 
but needs to be applied, while the plants are young, in 
very small doses. One of my men, this spring, when 
we were applying Paris Green to the potatoes, took a 
pailful of the water containing about a teaspoonful of the 
Paris Green to the gallon, and applied it to the young 
cucumber and melon vines in his garden. It killed many 
of the plants, though it had no injurious effect whatever 
on the potato vines. If Paris Green is used on melons, 
cucumbers, squash, etc., I would put in a teaspoonful 
of the poison to ten quarts of water, or say an ordinary 
pailful, at the same time stirring into the water two 
tablespoonfuls of White Hellebore powder. I have used 
this mixture on young vines without injury. I do not 
think it will kill all the bugs, but at any rate it greatly 
lessens their numbers and gives the vines a chance to 
grow. The real point is to apply the poisonous mix- 
ture early enough. If you wait until the bugs appear, 
they will be very apt to seriously injure the vines before 
you notice them. 

As the vines grow larger the leaves become tougher 
and less succulent, and there is more strength and vital- 
ity in the plant. A stronger mixture of Paris Green, 
therefore, can be used about the time the vines begin to 
run. So far as my observation goes, the Striped-bug 
attacks squash and pumpkin vines several days earlier 
than the Squash-bug. This is fortunate, for the Squash- 
bug is much more voracious and destructive to squashes 
than the Striped-bug. Paris Green applied with water, 
say about a tablespoonful to ten quarts, is as good a 
remedy as can be used. I would put on a weak mixture 
of Paris Green and Hellebore, say a teaspoonful of the 



I 



I3S-SECTS. 29 

jQrst and two tablespoonfuls of White Hellebore powder 
to ten quarts of water, on young squash, cucumber and 
melon plants. And for squashes, as soon as the Squash- 
bugs make their appearance, I would put on Paris Green 
alone at the rate of one tablespoonful to ten quarts of 
water. We sprinkle the poison mixed with water on the 
leaves of the plants with a wisp broom, being careful to 
keep the water in the pail frequently stirred to prevent 
the heavy poison from settling to the bottom. I think 
the reason my man lost his cucumber and melon plants 
was this : he had been applying Paris Green to the 
potatoes and had some left at the bottom of the pail. 
The poison had settled to the bottom, and conse- 
quently the mixture he applied to the cucumbers and 
melons was far stronger than that which he used on the 
potatoes, and much stronger than is necessary. 

Dusting cucumber, melon, and squash plants with 
plaster early in the morning, when the dew is on, has 
long been resorted to to check the ravages of the Striped- 
bug. It is undoubtedly a good thing. A little Paris 
Green, however, either applied in water or mixed with 
the plaster, is a much more effective application. 

For worms and caterpillars of all kinds which feed on 
the leaves and stalks of plants, such as the Currant-worm, 
the Army- worm, and Tent-caterpillar on fruit trees, 
the caterpillar on celery and tomato plants, and the 
Potato-worms are all easily destroyed with Paris Green. 
Their great voracity leads to their destruction. It re- 
quires but a single particle of the poison, swallowed 
with the Juice of the leaf to finish them. 

London Purple may be better than Paris Green, and 
there may be other poisons better still. But as we have 
been using the latter for many years for the Potato- 
bugs, and have become accustomed to it, we had better 
continue to use it until something very decidedly better 
is discovered. 



30 GARDEN^ING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

White Hellebore is a far less dangerous poison, espec- 
ially when applied in water, but it is generally suffi- 
ciently powerful to kill all kinds of yorlng worms and 
caterpillars. Worms and caterpillars are much more 
easily poisoned than their parent bugs or moths. In 
other words, a weaker mixture of Paris Green will kill 
the larvae or worms of the Potato-bug than is required to 
kill the bugs or beetles themselves. The worms and cat- 
erpillars which feed on the succulent leaves, are little 
more than sacks of sap, and it ought not to require much 
poison to wither them up. The Striped-bug, the Squash- 
bug and the Potato-bug or Beetle, when full grown, are 
not easily poisoned, and a little hand-picking before they 
lay their eggs on the leaves can be practised with great 
advantage, not by any means, however, neglecting to use 
the poison for the destruction of the larvae, and young 
bugs. 

CARE OP POISONS. 

I need hardly say that too much care can not be exer- 
cised in the use of poison. It is dangerous business, and 
I hope and believe that some article will be discovered 
which will kill insects and worms, but which will not in- 
jure man or beast. In the meantime, I would, so far as 
possible, limit myself to the use of only one or two poi- 
sons, say Hellebore and Paris Green, and they should at 
all times be kept under lock and key, and the pail or 
other vessels employed in their use, should be locked 
up and kept for the special purpose only. This is a mat- 
ter of much importance, not only for our own safety and 
that of our animals, but for the accomplishment of the 
object for which we keep the poison. A prompt applica- 
tion is often absolutely essential to its efficacy. We 
should therefore, at all times, have every thing connected 
with the use of the poison, not only in readiness, but 
where we can easily lay our hands upon it. 



CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES 
IN THE FARM-GARDEN. 



ASPARAGUS. 



Sow Asparagus seed in rich, mellow soil, early in the 
spring, in rows about fifteen inches apart, dropping the 
seed an inch apart in the rows and covering about one 
inch deep. When the plants come up hoe the ground 
between the rows, and pull out any weeds that are among 
the plants and those that cannot be reached with the hoe. 
Next spring, when the plants are a year old, set them 
out in the bed where they are to stay for the rest of their 
lives. The land should be free from stagnant water. 
It cannot be too rich. But the real secret of success in 
groAving large asparagus is to give the plants plenty of 
room and to keep out all the weeds. 

If you have no asparagus bed, at least a year's time 
may be saved by purchasing plants or roots. As a rule, 
those on sale are two years old. If strong and well grown, 
one-year-old plants are quite as good as those that are 
older. In fact, I would rather have a good one-year-old 
plant than a stunted, two-year-old one. It is never de- 
sirable to set out plants that are more than two years' old. 

The true plan, if you have no asparagus bed, is to buy 
roots enough to set out a bed this spring, and at the same 
time sow a few ounces of seed, as above directed, in an- 
other part of the garden. A pound of good seed ought 
to give at least ten thousand plants. 

It would be well to sow the seed thicker than I have 
(313 



32 GARDENING FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 

recommended, and then thin out the plants wide enough 
apart to admit the use of the hoe. In raising asparagus 
plants, we must aim to keep the land clean by the free 
use of the hoe rather than by hand- weeding. 

The advantage of raising your own asparagus roots is 
very great. If you take pains to sow on rich, mellow 
land, and to keep the bed scrupulously free from weeds, 
you will get stronger and better plants at one year old 
than the average two-year-old roots generally offered for 
sale. Then again, when you have your own roots, you 
can let them remain undisturbed in the original bed un- 
till you are ready to transplant them. 

MAKING AN ASPARAGUS BED. 

The old directions for planting an asparagus bed were 
well calculated to deter any young gardener from making 
the attempt. I can recollect very well the first asparagus 
bed I ever planted. The labor and manure must have 
cost at the rate of a thousand dollars an acre, and after 
all was done, no better results were obtained than we now 
secure at one-tenth the expense. In setting out a large 
asparagus bed for market, I would make the rows not less 
than four feet apart, and set out the plants in the rows 
two and a half to three feet apart, or wide enough to ad- 
mit the use of the horse-hoe both ways. In growing as- 
paragus we not only want a good crop, but to get it early 
in the season, and of the largest size. The size and earli- 
ness, apart from rich, warm, dry soil, depend principally 
upon the size and vigor of the roots the previous year. 
A weak root throws up a weak shoot, while a strong root, 
in which there is a considerable quantity of accumulated 
nutriment, will throw up a large shoot early in the season- 

It is for this reason that thin planting is so desirable. , 
Thin planting with clean cultui-e, on any ordinarily en- 
riched garden soil, will give us far larger and earlier 



POLE BEANS. 33 

asparagus shoots than can be obtaiaed from the most 
elaborately made, and most excessively manured bed, the 
plants in which are too thick. 

It is a popular notion that common salt is exceedingly 
beneficial as a manure for asparagus. I do not know 
that there is any positive proof of this, but at any rate, 
the salt will do no harm, even if applied thick enough to 
kill many of our common weeds. The salt is usually 
sown broadcast on the asparagus bed early in the spring, 
say at the rate of ten bushels per acre. It has been rec- 
ommended to sow salt at the rate of two or three pounds 
per square yard, or say at the rate of one hundred and 
twenty bushels per acre. I mention this to show that 
salt will not injure asparagus. 

In setting out asparagus plants we mark ofE the rows 
with a common corn-marker three feet and a half or four 
feet one way and two feet and a half or three feet the 
other way. Set out a single plant where the lines cross. 
It is desirable to disentangle and spread out the asparagus 
roots horizontally in every direction. On light sandy 
soil the work can be done with the hand, but on heavier 
soils it is better to remove the soil with a hoe, at the 
same time working and loosening the soil underneath. 
This will greatly facilitate the operation of setting out 
the plants. I do not think it is necessary or advisable to 
set out the plants as deep as is sometimes recommended. 
Three or four inches is deep enough. Sometimes a shovel- 
ful of manure is spread on the soil above each plant. 

POLE BEANS. 

The most delicious of all Beans is the Lima. Like all 
good things, however, it is more work to grow them than 
common field beans. They have to be provided with 
something to cling to. Poles, seven or eight feet long. 



34 GARDEiq-ING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

are best for tliis purpose. Unless you have poles from 
the woods, a good plan is to get inch-square strips from 
the saw mill or lumber yard. Such strips are handy in 
a garden for many purposes. Strips an inch and a quar- 
ter square are much stronger and better, but it is not 
always so easy to get them. I said Lima-beans could not 
be grown without some trouble, not only have you to 
provide poles for them, but they are very tender; they 
came from a warm climate, and do not like a cold soil. 
In the tropics the Lima-bean is a perennial plant. It does 
not need to be raised from seed every year, but the same 
plant grows on year after year, so the books tell us, and 
I presume it is true ; at any rate the Lima-bean here 
seems as though it would grow the year round if the 
weather was warm enough, as it is often growing when 
the frosts of autumn strike it. We must do all we can 
to make the soil warm in the spring and to push the 
plants forward rapidly in summer. A light, sandy soil is 
warmer and drier in the spring than the heavier and 
stiffer soils, and Lima-beans can be planted earlier on 
warm sandy land than on the clay. But the best crop of 
Lima-beans I ever raised, was on a soil about half way be- 
tween a sand and a clay ; and the poorest crop I ever 
raised was on very light sandy soil. 

I am inclined to think the trouble in the latter case 
was, that the beans were planted too thickly and were not 
kept as clean as they should have been. You cannot 
grow a crop of Lima-beans and a crop of weeds on the 
same land at the same time ; and if you have three hills 
of beans where there should be only two, one hill is a 
weed. Lima-beans should not be planted until the soil 
is warm, or the seed will rot in the ground. Here we 
can rarely plant before the middle of May. "We make 
hills about four feet apart, and plant six or seven good 
beans in a hill ; four plants in a hill are enough, but you 
know that something may happen to injure or kill some 



POLE BEANS. 35 

of them, and so it is better to put in more than you really 
need, and thin out the weaker plants, leaving three or 
four of the strongest and best in the hill. It is a good 
plan to set the pole in the hill before planting the beans. 
If the pole is not put in until the beans are growing, you 
are apt to disturb the plants. Put the poles in at least a 
foot deep, so that the wind will not blow them over when 
covered with vines. We sometimes plant four or five 
Lima-beans in a flower pot in the house or hot-bed, and 
when the plants are well started and the soil is warm 
enough, we set out the plants in the garden, being care- 
ful not to disturb the roots any more than we can help. 
I have had a very early crop of Lima-beans by adopting 
this plan. 

It is a pity that we cannot get a good dwarf variety of 
Lima-bean. We have a great variety of excellent dwarf 
or bush beans that are good for eating, pod and all, in the 
green state, or good for shelling when green, like Lima- 
beans and peas, or good for cooking when ripe. It is not 
often, however, that the same variety of bean is equally 
good for all these purposes. The Lima-bean is generally 
used for but one thing. You could not eat the green 
pods, and they are not often cooked when dry and ripe, 
though I am told they are very good. They are the most 
delicious of all beans for shelling and cooking when 
green. 

OTHER POLE BEANS. 

There are other varieties that are specially adapt- 
ed for string beans, that is, for eating the pods while 
green. I do not know that the pole varieties are any bet- 
ter for this purpose than the dwarf or bush kinds. One 
of the best varieties of pole beans, is the Speckled Cran- 
berry or London Horticultural. It does not usually grow 
over five or six feet high, and I have known a good crop 



36 GAEDEN'ING FOR YOUXG AXD OLD, 

raised without poles, but this is a slovenly method which 
ought not to be tolerated in the garden. Another excel- 
lent pole bean is the Scarlet Eunner. It is a rampant 
grower and is frequently used as a screen; the flowers are 
beautiful and the pods, gathered when young, are de- 
licious. 

BUSH BEANS. 

For string beans the best variety I have yet grown, is 
the Black Wax or Butter-bean. The Golden Wax is a 
larger bean and more productive, but I do not think the 
pods are any better. The Early Valentine is a little 
earlier than the Wax or Butter-bean, and on this account 
deserves a place in every gai-den. The White Kidney is 
a very valuable bean. It affords very fair string beans, and 
the pods, which are not wanted for this purpose, can be 
left on the vines to ripen, when they will prove very ac- 
ceptable for boiling and baking. 

The cultivation of bush beans is a simple matter. In 
the field where they are to be cultivated with a horse-hoe, 
they are planted in rows about thirty inches apart, and 
five or six beans are dropped in a hill, or place, every 
twelve or fifteen inches in the row. A larger yield proba- 
bly could be obtained by drilling the beans continuously 
in the row, say one bean to each mch ; but it is a little 
more work to pull the beans when ripe, and some of our 
farmers think it is more work to hoe them. In the garden 
it is not necessary to plant the beans so far apart. In my 
own garden, I make the rows fifteen inches apart, and 
drop the beans about an inch apart in the row. The chil- 
dren are very apt to sow them a good deal thicker than 
this, and I have noticed that the first dish of beans always 
comes from the children's garden. As a rule, thick seeding 
favors early maturity ; at any rate this is so with peas, 
beans, and the grain crops, such as wheat, barley, and 



BEETS. 37 

oats. Of course there is a limit. If you sow too thickly 
you would not get any crop at all, and in any case the 
premature ripening is obtained at the expense of the 
yield. What I mean is, when you get a very early crop 
it will usually be a small one. I should plant a row of 
Early Valentine beans quite thickly, say two beans to 
each inch of row, and then, a week later, sow a few more 
rows of Black Wax or Golden Wax, three beans to each 
two inches of row, and then when the ground is 
thoroughly warm, about the first week in June, sow the 
main crop not thicker than one bean to each inch of row. 
The White Kidney may be sown in the same way and 
about the same time. I need hardly say that the ground 
must be kept hoed between the rows, and all the weeds 
pulled out from between the plants. The Black Wax is 
the best of all the string beans; a good deal depends, 
however, on obtaining a good succulent growth, and 
gathering the pods before they become too old and tough. 
For this reason it is better to plant at two or three dif- 
ferent times in succession, and it is also desirable, in order 
to favor luxuriant growth, to plant on warm, rich, sandy 
land, and especially to keep it free from weeds. 



BEETS. 

The best of all Beets is supposed to be the Egjrptian 
Blood Turnip. The Editor of the Americans" Agricul- 
TUEIST once said, that no one knew any thing about 
beets until he had eaten the Egyptian. It certainly is 
a delicious beet, but like many other good things it can 
be spoiled by neglect or bad management. It should be 
grown rapidly and not too thick in the row, and gathered 
before it becomes too large and tough. The Bassano- 
beet is very early and easily grown. It is larger than the 
Egyptian, but the flesh is lighter colored, and on this ac- 



38 GARDEN'ING POE YOUNG AND OLD. 

count not so attractive. The flesh is soft, sweet, and ■well 
flavored. Its earliness entitles it to a place in every 
garden. 

The Early Blood Turnip is more extensively cultivated 
in all sections of the United States than any other variety. 
It is excellent both for summer and winter use. For 
winter use, however, it should not be sown before the 
first or second week in June. I have raised an excellent 
crop sown as late as the middle of July. As a winter 
beet the Long Smooth Blood Red is the best variety — 
or perhaps I should say, it is the most popular variety. 
For my own use I think the Blood Turnip is just as good 
a winter beet, if sown late, as the Long Smooth Red, 
but it is not so productive. 

The cultivation of beets is by no means difficult; 
they will do well on a variety of soils. The great point 
is to make the land rich and mellow. You can grow 
beets or Mangel Wurzels on much heavier or more clayey 
land than you can turnips. The only point is to manure 
heavily and work the soil thoroughly. Recollect, how- 
ever, it will not do to work such land while it is wet. 
Remember also, if you let such land remain unplowed 
or unspaded until it is baked by our hot sun, you will 
have a tough job on your hands. You must take it when 
it is neither too wet nor too dry. Such land ought 
always to be plowed or spaded in the autumn, and 
again in the spring, as soon as it is dry enough to crum- 
ble to pieces. This kind of heavy land is not easily 
managed, but when got into good shape and properly 
cultivated, it stands the drouth well and is immensely 
productive. 

For early beets, it is best to select a warm sandy soil, 
and sow the seed in rows as soon as the frost is out of the 
ground. A week and two later sow again. I sow mine in 
rows fifteen inches apart. I say fifteen mches, not be- 
cause fourteen inches would not be as good, or sixteen 



BEETS. 39 

inches would not be better, but because I happen to have 
a garden marker that makes rows fifteen inches apart, a 
distance which suits most crops. It costs no more 
to hoe a row fourteen or fifteen inches wide than one 
which is only seven or eight inches wide. The boys 
who cultivate corn, going twice in a row, will under- 
stand why this is so. If your corn is three and a 
half feet apart, is is no more work to cultivate it than 
if it was two and a half or three feet apart, for the simple 
reason that you and the horse have to go up and down 
each row, no matter how wide or how narrow it may be, 
and so it is with hoeing. If the hoe, when placed 
by the side of the plants in the drill, will reach 
the center of the row, it is no more work to hoe a 
wide row than a narrow one. And there are many 
reasons in favor of wide rows, especially in our dry, 
hot climate. Vegetables and garden crops of nearly 
all kinds need dry, rich land, and an abundance of 
moisture. The dry land we get by underdraining where 
needed. The rich land we get by heavy manuring, and 
the moisture we get by killing weeds and keeping our 
cultivated plants a good distance apart. Plants evapor- 
ate large quantities of water, and if you have three plants 
on a spot of land containing only moisture enough for 
two, the growth of these three plants will be checked 
for want of the necessary moisture. As a rule we can 
not profitably increase the supply of water, but we can 
very easily reduce the number of plants. 

Sow the beets in rows fifteen inches apart, and thin out 
the plants in the rows to four or five inches apart; then, 
as the plants grow, thin them out still more, as soon 
as any of them are large enough to use, and you will 
have an abundant supply of this healthful and delicious 
vegetable. 

In good beet seed there are two or three seeds together 
in a sort of very rough bur. If the seed is sown with a 



40 GAKDENING FOR YOUN^G AND OLD. 

drill it is necessary to recollect that seed varies greatly 
in size. American-grown seed is much larger than that 
which is imported. And Egyptian Blood Turnip is 
nearly always a small inferior looking seed. 

Our garden drills have a hole for sowing heet seed, but 
this hole would either sow the Egyptian too thick or the 
Bassano, or Dewing's Blood Turnip, or the Long Smooth 
Ked much too thin. If the seed is good, it is not neces- 
sary to drop more than one seed to every inch of row. Of 
course it is not necessary to sow even so thick as this, 
but it is better and safer to sow three or four times more 
than you need, rather than to run the risk of having the 
crops too thin. 

MANGEL WUEZEL. 

Mangel Wurzels are simply large beets grown for cattle, 
sbeep, and swine. Any one who can raise beets in the 
garden can raise Mangel Wurzels in the field. All there 
is to be done is to make the land as rich in the field and 
keep it as clean and mellow as you do in the garden. 
It would be a good thing, however, to sow a few Mangel 
Wurzels in the garden until you became familiar with its 
habit of growth. I once had a farmer's son hoeing 
Mangels for me in the field, and I had the greatest diffi- 
culty in persuading him to thin them out sufficiently. 
The plants were very small and he wanted to leave them 
about an inch apart in the row, while I wanted him to 
leave only a single good plant to every foot of the row. 
The land was rich and we had moist, growing weather, 
and in less than a month the plants, though a foot apart 
in the row, completely covered the ground. " I had no 
idea that such little bits of things could grow so rapidly," 
he said. Had his father encouraged him to sow a few 
Mangel Wurzels in the garden he would have known 
better. 



MAJSGEL WUKZEL. 41 

If you SOW Mangel Wurzels in the garden, mark off the 
rows fifteen inches apart, and then run the same marker 
across the rows and drop three or four seeds, where the 
lines cross, and cover them about an inch deep, patting 
the ground smooth with the back of the hoe, just as you 
do when planting corn in the field. When the Mangel 
Wurzels are fairly up, hoe them and thin out the plants, 
leaving only one good strong plant in each hill. Suffer 
not a weed to grow, and if the land is rich enough you 
will have a great crop of roots. Next year you may 
wish to plant an acre or two in the field. 

There are several varieties of Mangel Wurzel; in color 
they are nearly all either red or yellow. The red, however, 
is not by any means a deep bright red like the Blood 
Turnip, or the Long Smooth Blood Beet. There is no 
mistaking the one for the other. 

In shape we have round, or globe Mangels, and the 
long varieties, with an intermediate class, called ovoids. 

This gives us six distinct kinds of Mangel Wurzel, and 
in addition to these six, we have a great number of varie- 
ties, or at any rate a great number of names. We have 
Carter's Yellow Grlobe, and Sutton's Yellow Globe, and 
Harris' Yellow Globe. All that is meant by ifc, or at any 
rate all I mean by it is, that we have taken great pains 
to select every year Just such Mangels as come nearest to 
our idea of what a good root should be, and we set out 
these roots for seed. They are not distinct varieties, 
but merely good strains which we wish to propagate. 

It would be a good thing for a farmer's son to get into 
the habit of selecting some of the best Mangels and set- 
ting them out for seed. I am not going to tell you which 
IS the best variety of Mangel or the best strain to grow. 
On my own farm we prefer the Yellow Globe. 

They do not grow so deep in the ground as the long 
kinds, and are much more easily harvested. We think 
they are not so coarse as the Long Eed Mangel, and we 



43 GAKDEKING FOR YOU]S"G A^D OLD. 

have a fancy that the yellow Mangel makes yellower 
butter than the red. Probably this is nothing but fancy. 
I have weighed a big crop of Long Red and Yellow 
Globe Mangel, growing side by side in the same field, and 
the scales indicated very little difference in the two crops. 
The general impression, how^ever, is that the Long Red 
will produce a larger crop per acre than the Ovoid or 
Globe varieties. 

THE CABBAGES. 

The Cabbage is well worth studying. Some people 
have got in the habit of sneering at cabbage growers. 
It is a fact, that a man who cannot read or write will 
sometimes beat the best of us in growing cabbages. His 
success, however, is not due to his ignorance. You will 
find he has thoroughly studied the wants of the vegetable. 
If he knows nothing else he knows how to grow cabbages. 

Cabbages require preeminently rich land. It must be 
preter naturally rich. People say that land which will 
produce corn will produce cabbages. I doubt it. Land 
may be rich enough for a good crop of corn that is not 
rich enough to produce even a fair crop of cabbages. The 
reason of this probability is, that corn is a natural crop, 
while the cabbage is an artificial production. We do not 
raise cabbages for seed as we do corn. We raise it for 
the heads or tender leaves or sprouts. Naturally it runs 
up to seed the first year, but this is not wliat we want. 
We want a cabbage that will grow rapidly and produce a 
large mass of leaves good for food. For this purpose we 
require a well-trained, or cultivated variety, having this 
artificial character thoroughly established. We also want, 
and must have, very rich land. 

Early cabbages require richer land than the late varie- 
ties. But you can grow twice as many plants on an acre. 
I know one gentleman who makes a great deal of money 



THE CABBAGES. 43 

from his crop of early cabbages. He plants about three 
acres every year, some of it on land which had been in 
other crops the previous year, and some of it on land 
which has grown cabbages for several years. His crop 
on the old land is earlier and better than that on the new 
soil. No matter how heavily he manures the new land, 
he cannot make it as productive the first year as the old 
piece ; the reason is, that the manure can not be so thor- 
oughly worked into the soil the first year. This is a 
point of great importance in horticulture. We not only 
need to manure our land heavily, but to thoroughly mix 
the manure with the soil. 

EAELT CABBAGE PLANTS. 

Early cabbages bring a high price, and it will pay to 
take extra pains with them. There are two ways of 
raising early cabbages, one is by setting out plants which 
^were started the autumn previous and wintered over in 
cold frames. The other plan is by sowing the seed in a 
hot-bed or greenhouse early in the spring, and when 
the plants are large enough and have been properly 
hardened off, set them out in the field or garden. It 
is possible to get the cabbages just as early from the 
spring-sown plants as from those sown in autumn. 
As to which is best depends very much on circumstances. 
Eecent practice seems to be tending more and more to- 
ward the use of spring-sown plants. 

Where only a few plants are needed for home use, a 
good plan is to sow a little seed in a box in the house. 
After the plants are up you must give them as much sun 
as possible, and be careful not to keep them in too warm 
a room. During warm days the box may be placed out of 
doors in the sun, in a spot sheltered from the prevailing 
wind. Cabbages are hardy, and when raised in a hot-bed 
or in the house they are much more likely to be kept too 



44 GARDEiflKG FOE TOU]SrG AN"D OLD. 

warm than too cool. The great point is to giye them 
plenty of sun and plenty of room ; if they are too thick 
in the box they must be transplanted or pricked out into 
another box. The oftener they are transplanted, and 
the more room you give them, the stronger and healthier 
they become. It is very desirable to have strong, stocky 
plants. As soon as the land is dry enough to work 
properly, and the plants are large enough and strong 
enough to set out, prepare the land by spading or plow- 
ing, and harrow or rake until it is fine and mellow. Then 
set your line and mark out the land in rows two and a 
half feet apart, and with a dibble set the plants twenty 
inches to two feet apart in the row. 

The best and earliest variety for market is the true 
Jersey Wakefield, but for home use the Early York is 
still preferred by many. In Western New York we get 
the Jersey Wakefield large enough for market about the 
first of July — sometimes a Jittle earlier, and sometimes 
a little later, according to the season. 

SECOJTD EARLY CABBAGES. 

For second early cabbage we have several excellent 
varieties. Henderson's Summer is a favorite variety with 
market gardeners. It makes a large head and looks very 
attractive. So far as my experience goes, however, it is not 
of the highest quality, and for my own use I should 
prefer Winningstadt, or Fottler's Drumhead. 

The method of cultivation of these second early cab- 
bages is the same as for the early, except that the land 
need not be quite so rich, and the plants should be set a 
little farther apart. For late summer or early autumn 
cabbages it is not necessary to raise the plants in a hot-bed. 
Sow the seeds in a warm, sheltered spot in the garden, as 
soon as the ground can be got into good condition. Drill 
in the seed in rows fifteen inches apart, and drop about 



THE CABBAGES. 45 

four seeds to each inch of row. "We generally sow a lit- 
tle thicker than this in hopes that the plants will have a 
better chance of escaping the ravages of the little black 
beetle which is almost certain to attack them. Frequent 
hoeing is particularly desirable, as it not only kills weeds 
and favors the growth of the plants, but it has a ten- 
dency to frighten away the black beetle. For late au- 
tumn or winter cabbages we sow our cabbage seed from 
the middle of May until the first week in June. The 
larger and later the variety the earlier should the seed be 
sown. The summer and early autumn varieties, such as 
the Winningstadt, Henderson's Summer, Fottler's, Stone 
Mason, and Harris' Short Stem Drumhead can be changed 
into winter cabbages by sowing the seed from the last 
week in May until the first week in June. I have had a 
good crop of most of these varieties when the plants were 
set out as late as the middle of June ; as a rule, how- 
ever, it is better to plant earlier. 

On my own farm, where we raise cabbage plants in 
very large quantities, we drill the seed in roAvs twenty-one 
inches apart, and keep the crop clean by the frequent 
use of the horse-hoe. You need the cleanest, richest and 
best land, and in- addition to this, sow four hundred 
pounds of superphosphate per acre. With good clean 
land, a dressing of superphosphate and the frequent use 
of the horse-hoe between the rows, it is a very easy mat- 
ter to raise cabbage plants. You can grow from one 
himdred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand 
good cabbage plants to the acre. When much thicker 
than this, the plants are not so stocky as they should be. 
The price paid for good cabbage plants is from two dol- 
lars to three dollars per thousand. 

LATE CABBAGES. 

For the main crop of winter cabbages, the large late 
Flat Dutch or Premium Flat Dutch, or, if the land is 



46 



GARDENING FOR TOUJSTG AND OLD. 



rich enough, the Mammoth Marblehead are all excellent 
varieties. I have said that late cabbages do not require 
such rich land as the early. This is true, and yet it seems 
to be a fact that when you sow the early yarieties late in 
the season, for the purpose of using them for a late fall or 
winter crop, these smaller and earlier varieties will do 
better on moderately rich or comparatively poor soil, 




Fig. 2. — SAVOT CABBAGE. 

than the larger and later varieties. I know some experi- 
enced cabbage growers who raise the Winningstadt for 
the main crop, because they find that it is sure to head, 
while, from want of plenty of manure, they can not grow 
the larger and later varieties. When late cabbages are 
raised as a field crop, a good plan is, to mark out the land 
three feet apart each way, and set out a plant where the 
lines cross. This gives four thousand eight hundred and 



I 



THE CAULIFLOWEE. 4? 

forty plants to the acre. The advantage of the plan is, 
that you can cultivate the ground both ways between the 
plants with a horse-hoe, and the labor of tending the 
crop is very slight. 

SAVOY CABBAGES. 

The Savoy Cabbages are so unlike ordinary cabbages 
that some works place them under a separate head, as 
Savoys. In the Savoys the leaves are strongly wrinkled, 
or blistered, and the heads are never very solid. In tex- 
ture and flavor they are more like a cauliflower than like 
the ordinary winter cabbages, being very tender and mar- 
row-like, and most delicious to those who like cabbages 
at all. They are among the hardiest of cabbages, and 
may be left out until the last. Their cultivation is the 
same as that of other late varieties. 

TEE CAULIFLOWER. 

The cultivation of the Cauliflower is very similar to 
that required for the cabbage. The method of raising the 
plants is the same; the time and manner of setting 
out is the same; the distance apart is the same, as is the 
method of preparing and enriching the land. The only 
difference is, that the cauliflower, being a little more del- 
icate, every operation must be conducted with greater 
care and thoroughness. The profits of the crop are very 
large, and it will pay those who raise it to spare no pains 
that will insure success. 

There was a time when it was thought that the Ameri- 
can climate Tvas particularly unsuited to the growth of 
the cauliflower; such, however, is not the case. "We are 
now satisfied that as good cauliflowers can be grown here 
as in any other country. Our hot sun, which was sup- 
posed to render the cultivation difficult, if not impossi- 



\ 



48 GAEDEKING FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 

ble, is, in point of fact, a great adyantage ; but we must 
make other things correspond. If the soil is dry, poor, 
hard, cloddy and weedy, the hot sun may be an injury ; 
it will wither up the cauliflowers and the careless culti- 
vator will be very apt to blame the sun. But if your 
land is well drained, moist, rich, mellow, deeply and 
thoroughly cultivated and free from weeds ; if you have 
good strong cauliflower plants of the right variety, and 
set out at the right time ; if the roots have got firm hold 
of the soil and have access to abundance of food and 
water, let the sun shine, the leaves of the plant will 
glory in the abundant sun ; and if they wilt a little dur- 
ing the fierce heat of the day, the next morning will find 
them bright and fresh, and full of vigor. 

I would advise no one to go extensively into the culti- 
vation of cauliflowers before they have had some experi- 
ence ; better raise a few in the garden and make special 
efforts to grow them to perfection. When you have 
learned the secret of success, extend their cultivation to 
the field and market garden. The standard varieties of 
cauliflower are Early Paris, Erfurt Earliest Dwarf, Large 
Lenormand and Walcheren. The former two are early 
varieties, and the last two are larger and later. "What we 
have said in regard to the planting of early and late vari- 
eties of cabbage, is equally true in regard to the planting 
of early and late varieties of cauliflower. To have early 
cauliflowers, of course, you must sow early varieties, but 
for a late crop, it is not absolutely necessary to have late 
varieties. If late kinds are planted early and every thing 
goes well, they will give you a larger, handsomer, and 
more profitable crop; but it often happens, where the soil 
and season are not propitious, that the early varieties 
planted late will give the best results. In other words, 
if you can grow a large crop of the late varieties do so. 
But if you have any reason to anticipate a failure, you 
had better be content with raising a crop of the early and 



I 



CARROTS. 49 

smaller varieties planted late. You can sometimes grow 
a good crop of Early Paris or Erfurt Earliest Dwarf, 
when you can not get a single head of Large Lenormand 
or Walcheren. 

Except for the earliest crop, it is not necessary to raise 
the plants in a hot-bed. Sow, out of doors, on the rich- 
est, warmest, and mellowest soil you have, in rows fifteen 
inches apart, as directed for cabbage seed. The late varie- 
ties should be sown just as early as the ground is in good 
working condition. The early varieties, when intended 
for a late crop, need not be sown before the middle of 
May, and they will often do well if not sown until the 
first of June. Keep the plants well hoed. If too thick, 
prick them out into a border of rich, moist land, in rows 
a foot apart, and at two or three inches distant in the 
row. Let them stay there until wanted, they will make 
fine, strong, stocky plants, and well repay you for the 
extra labor of pricking out. 



CAEROTS. 

The Carrot is not a popular crop. Horses are very 
fond of carrots, but then they never had to weed them. 
If they had been obliged to get on their hands and knees, 
so to speak, with the hot sun on their backs, and had to 
weed and thin carrots, when Tom and Dick were gone a 
fishing, they would have been satisfied with dry corn and 
hay. Boys ought to know better. If we want a good 
thing, we have got to work for it. The horse, I have no 
doubt, would go without the carrots rather than per- 
form the necessary work of raising them. But we want 
horses to work for our pleasure, and a good horse that 
behaves himself, and does cheerfully all that we ask of 
him, is entitled to an occasional feed of fresh Juicy car- 
rots to mix with his dry hay and corn. But I am sure 
3 



50 GARDEKIKG FOR TOUKG AND OLD. 

our bright American boys will soon learn to make the 
horse do nine-tenths of the work of raising the carrots. 
Just think of it ! When I was a boy, we used to make a 
bed about five feet wide, trim it off at the edges with 'a 
sharp spade, throw the soil on top from the alleys, rake 
the bed, and then sow the carrot seed broadcast, and 
make the bed smooth by patting it with the back of the 
spade. These beds of carrots, onions, etc., looked very 
neat and trim when first made, but oh ! the labor of 
weeding them ! By and by we made a wonderful dis- 
covery, we found that carrots, onions, etc., could be 
sown in rows two or three inches apart, where we could 
dig up the weeds with a knife or our fingers. Gradually 
the rows were made wider apart, and now almost every 
one drills in his carrots, onions, parsnips, etc., in rows 
wide enough apart, to admit the use of a good American 
hoe. 

IMPROVED CARROT GROWING. 

I want to do still better. I want the horse to do all of 
the hoeing. I sow my carrots in rows twenty-one inches 
apart, and cultivate them with a horse-hoe. If you have 
a steady horse and a good cultivator, and will give your 
mind to the work, you can run very close to the rows, and 
leave very little to be done in the way of hand- weeding 
or hoeing. In fact, if you will run the cultivator between 
the rows once a week after the plants get fairly started, 
they will grow so rapidly that they will smother out or 
hold in check nearly all the weeds. I tell my boys that 
cultivating between such narrow rows is an education. 
It is good mental discipline, for they must keep their 
mind constantly fixed on their work. 

Much of the success of the plan, however, will depend 
upon having the land not only rich, but in the best 
mechanical condition. Fortunately our inventors and 
manufacturers are fully abreast of the times. We have a 



CAEROTS. 51 

good gang-plow, with bright steel mould-boards, that 
will turn over three furrows at a time, and leaye the 
land almost smooth and level. Then we have a harrow 
that will cut the clods to pieces, and still further smooth 
and mellow the land. After that, we make use of a 
smoothing harrow. This, with a roller passed over the 
land two or three times, first the harrow and then the 
roller, I formerly thought left the land in as good shape 
as we could hope to get it by the use of horse-implements, 
and that anything further in the way of fining or smooth- 
ing the surface soil must be done with a steel rake. But 
no, we have now a revolving harrow and leveler, that will 
leave the land as smooth and fine as it can be made with 
a steel rake, at one-tenth of the expense. With these 
implements, a garden line, a marker, and a good drill, 
field-gardening is a much more pleasant and profitable 
business than ever before in the history of the world. 
There is one thing which our drill makers need to do, 
which is to give us a bright, steel coulter for depositing 
the seed in the row. The various seed drills have rough 
cast-iron coulters two inches wide, and are admirably 
adapted for doing poor work. The coulter catches every 
bit of straw, or root, or grass, or rubbish it comes in con- 
tact with. The seeds are scattered in a wide row. In- 
stead of this we want a narrow, bright steel coulter that 
would run easily and smoothly through the soil, and de- 
posit the seed in a row not over a quarter of an inch 
wide. It would not only do better work, especially when 
the land was damp and sticky, but as can be readily seen, 
these narrow drills would leave very much less space for 
hand weeding. In fact a skillful boy, with the right kind 
of hoe, could run so close to this narrow row that he 
would not leave one weed in a thousand that would have 
to be pulled out with the fingers. Another thing in re- 
gard to the culture of carrots which I think is important : 
you know the time was, when onion growers thought it 



53 GARDEKIN^G POR TOUJSTG AND OLD. 

was necessary to thin out the onions, leaving only one 
plant every three or four inches ; but we have discovered 
that the onion will bear crowding. If three or four 
onions be left in a bunch, they will push each other up- 
wards and downwards, lengthwise and sidewise, and you 
will get three or four good sized onions instead of one 
large overgrown one which no one wants. And so it is 
with carrots. Such varieties as the Early Short Horn or 
the Half Long will bear a good deal of crowding. I have 
often left four or five carrots in a bunch and had them 
all grow to good size. They push each other sidewise in 
the loose, well cultivated soil. Leaving them thick in 
this way not only saves the unpleasant labor of thinning 
with the fingers, but this thick crop of carrots keeps 
down the weeds in the row and saves much labor in 
weeding. 

The true plan is, to sow the carrots pretty thick, drop- 
ping, say two or three seeds to each inch of row, and in- 
stead of thinning them out by hand, as is usually done, 
I would push or pull a narrow hoe through them and 
thus leave a bunch of plants every five or six inches in 
the row ; each bunch may have four or five carrots, which 
will grow strong enough to keep down the weeds which 
may be left in the bunch, and the entire work of weed- 
ing can be done with a cultivator and hoe. The large 
long varieties of carrots, like the Long Orange and 
White Belgian, can not be left so thick in the bunches, 
and for this reason, I prefer to grow the Half Long vari- 
ety ; it is more nutritious and is much more easily har- 
vested. 

CELEEY. 

Celery is a crop which should be largely grown in the 
field-garden. It is essentially a farm crop, just as much 
so as cabbage. I mean by this that it requires a good 



CELERY. 53 

deal of space, and should be grown on the farm where 
land is comparatively cheap, rather than in suburban 
market gardens, where land is worth from five hundred 
dollars to five thousand dollars an acre. Vegetables 
which must be marketed fresh every morning, must be 
grown near the market, but this is not necessarily the 
case with Celery. 

When I was a boy it was quite an afEair to grow cel- 
ery. We dug trenches and heavily manured the bottom, 
put three or four inches of soil on top of the manure, 
and set a single row of plants six or eight inches apart in 
the row. The work was done with a spade, and celery 
was a costly luxury. Where land was high, we sometimes, 
instead of planting a single row, made the trench four or 
five feet wide, covered the bottom with manure, put on 
the soil, and planted four or five rows eight or ten inches 
apart in this wide trench. I have seen a good crop 
raised in this way, but it is a great deal of work and will 
not pay. The truth is, that celery requires a great deal 
of moisture ; it needs rich land too, but moisture will, to 
a certain extent, take the place of manure. If you can 
get land that is well drained and moist also, that is the 
true place for celery. If the land is not moist you must 
set the plants farther apart in the rows. For early cel- 
ery, of which comparatively little is required either for 
home use or market, the seed must be sown in a hot-bed 
or in a box in the house. You can sow the seed in rows 
one inch apart and ten or twelve seeds to each inch of 
row. When the plants begin to crowd one another, dig 
them up and prick them out into a cold-frame or cooler 
hot-bed, or into a larger box in the house. In two or 
three weeks they will probably need to be transplanted 
again into a cold-frame or warm border out of doors; set 
them in rows wide enough apart to admit the use of a 
hoe, keep clean, and let them remain until wanted to set 
out. 



54 GARDENIIS'G FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

For the main crop, the seed should be sown in a warm 
sheltered spot as early in the spring as the soil is in 
good working condition. The better plan is to prepare 
the ground the previous autumn, and the more manure 
YOU can work into it, the better. Do this as early in the 
fall as the land can be spared ; this will give the weed 
seeds in the manure and in the soil a chance to germi- 
nate. Work the ground several times, for the more you 
work it, the more weed seeds will germinate and be de- 
stroyed ; this is very important, because celery seed is 
slow to germinate in the cold soil in the spring, and if 
the land is full of weed seeds, they will start long before 
the seeds of the celery and cause a great deal of trouble 
in hoeing and weeding. It is folly to endeavor to raise 
celery plants unless the land is very rich, and is kept 
scrupulously clean. If the land has been carefully pre- 
pared in the autumn, I would not plow or spade it in the 
spring, as that would bring up the cold soil to the surface. 
As soon as the frost is out of the first three or four inches 
of the surface soil, hoe the bed and rake it with a steel 
rake, and make it fine and smooth. Then mark rows ten 
inches apart, and sow the celery seed evenly in the rows, 
depositing ten or twelve seeds to each inch of row, with a 
radish seed every three or four inches apart in the row. 
The radish seed will germinate quickly, and show you 
where the rows are, and enable you to hoe lightly be- 
tween them, long before the celery makes its appear- 
ance. The great point is, to get strong, stocky plants 
with an abundance of fine roots. For this purpose it 
will be necessary, not only to keep the bed very clean, 
but to thin out the plants where too thick. The plants 
ought to be not less than an inch to two inches apart in 
the row. When ready to transplant, the bed should be 
saturated with water, and the right way to do this, is to 
take a fork or spade and thrust it down deep into the soil 
between the rows and below the roots of the celery, and 



CELERY. 55 

lifting tip or breaking up in such a way as to leave the 
bed full of cracks and holes. In this manner you can get 
several barrels of water upon, or rather into, a small bed. 
The next morning, if the bed has been thoroughly satu- 
rated, the plants can be taken up with all their roots, 
and more or less fine soil still adhering to them. 

In raising celery plants on a large scale, I find it de- 
sirable to sow the seed in rows twenty-one inches apart, or 
far enough to admit the use of a horse-hoe. This not only 
saves much labor in hoeing, but the frequent use of the 
horse-hoe keeps the land loose and mellow, and when 
you wish to set out the plants, they can be taken up 
much more easily and with a large mass of fine roots, 
with soil adhering to them. Before commencing to fork 
up the plants, we run a narrow cultivator several times 
between the rows as deep as we can get it; set out the 
plants with as little exposure of the roots to the air as 
possible. It does not hurt a plant to wilt when the wilt- 
ing is caused merely by the evaporation of water through 
the leaves, but it is a serious injury to let the roots shrivel 
up from exposure to our hot sun and drying winds. 

SETTING OUT THE PLANTS. 

Before transplanting, however, it is necessary to get 
trenches ready. In point of fact, the trenches are not 
trenches at all, according to the old meaning of the 
term. The way I have done the work on my own farm 
is to get the land ready by plowing and harrowing until 
it is quite smooth and mellow. I then take a marker 
with teeth four feet apart, set a line for the first row and 
run the marker along the line. After the land is all^ 
marked out into rows four feet apart, take a double 
mould-board plow, with two horses, and run the plow 
along the row made by the marker. If you have not a 
double mould-board plow, the work can be done equally 



56 GAKDEJSriNG FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

well -witli an ordinary plow ; except that it is necessary 
to go twice in a row, up and down, instead of once. Yoa 
will see that this is simj)ly making what are called dead 
furrows, every four feet. 

When the work is done, draw out some of the richest, 
most thoroughly rotted manure you can find and spread 
in the rows, or dead-furrows. Spread it evenly and knock 
it to pieces thoroughly with a hoe or potato hook, mixing 
more or less soil with it, getting it, at any rate, well 
broken to pieces. Then with a plow throw the soil back 
again into the furrow; then roll and hirrow and roll 
again, until you have made the soil as fine as possible. 
Then take your four-foot marker again, set the line exactly 
where it was in the first place, and run the marker along 
the line just over where the manure has been put. If 
the work has been well done, you will have five or six 
inches of good mellow soil in which to set out your cel- 
ery plants. I set my plants a foot apart in the row ; as 
the rows are four feet apart we get ten thousand eight 
hundred and ninety plants to the acre. 

Of course plants can be grown much closer than this. 
The rows can be made three feet apart and the plants set 
six inches apart in the row. This would give twenty- 
nine thousand and forty plants to the acre, and if the land 
is rich enough, moist enough and clean enough, and you 
have the best plants, and give them the best of treatment, 
and the season is every way favorable, you can get just as 
good celery from the thicker planting as from the thin. 
But my land is simply ordinary farm land and an acre or 
two more or less, provided it will save labor, and insure a 
crop in an unfavorable as well as a favorable season, does 
not count. Certainly I would advise any farm boy, whose 
father will furnish the land rent free, for a given num- 
ber of celery plants, not to make the rows too near, or 
set out the plants too close in the rows. 

Some of the old market gardeners may criticise me for 



CELERY. 57 

recommending such thin planting, but I know what I 
tnow. I know that their land, which has been in gar- 
den culture for many years, is in a very different condi- 
tion from our very best farm land, and it will be far bet- 
ter the first year or two, when trying to raise garden 
crops on farm land, not to plant too thickly. 

In setting out the celery plants, select damp weather 
if possible, but a damp or rainy day is not half so neces- 
sary as a finely worked, mellow and moist soil. If the 
ground is dry and cloddy, so that the dry lumps of earth 
will tumble into the hole made by the dibble, you had 
better let the plants stay where they are, and go to work 
with a roller and harrow^ until you have made the soil 
fine and mellow. I know that this can be done, and it is 
sometimes necessary to go over the land half a dozen 
times or more with a roller and harrow. I put one team 
to the roller, and a three-horse team to a Smoothing Har- 
row. Having the boy ride on the harrow so as to press 
it into the soil, let him go ahead and stir up the soil, 
bringing the lumps to the surface. The roller follows and 
crushes the surface; then go over it again, going round 
and round the lumpy piece until every lump is broken up 
fine. Even a very light shower will make such a well- 
worked soil moist enough to allow the plants to be set 
out, and if we do not have any shower, the moisture will 
in time come up from the subsoil and make the ground 
moist enough to insure the safety of the plants. A re- 
cently transplanted row of celery often presents a sorry 
appearance in our dry climate. But do not be discour- 
aged. If the roots and the crowns of the plants are alive 
they will in time start into growth. If the plants were 
set out during a rain, and the surface of the soil after- 
wards bakes or becomes hard, the crust should be broken 
up fine with a hoe. An inch or two of dry, loose earth 
on the surface checks evaporation and keeps the soil 
moist underneath where the roots are. Always remem- 



58 GAKDElSriKG FOE YOUKG AJifD OLD. 

ber this, as it is yery important. A dry surface, if the 
soil is loose and fine, is a good thing, provided there is 
sufficient moisture in the soil below, around the roots. 

As the celery grows, keep the ground well cultivated 
and hoed; and this is all that need be done until the 
plants have nearly attained their growth. The earth is 
then drawn round the plants in order to blanch the 
stalks. You will soon learn how to do this. It is neces- 
sary to gather up the loose and straggling stalks, and 
press the whole plant firmly together with the hand in 
order to prevent the soil falling into the center or 
" heart" of the plant between the stalks. Draw the soil 
around the plant, fully up to the lower leaves, and if the 
weather is fine and the plants continue to grow, earth 
them up again. 

STOEING FOE WI2^TEE. 

There are several plans for keeping celery during the 
winter. My own method is to dig a trench in dry, 
sandy land, a foot wide, and deep enough to hold the 
plants. In this set the plants upright, just as they grew, 
only putting them close together crosswise of the trench. 
The more soil there is left adhering to the roots the bet- 
ter. It is also desirable and certainly much more pleasant, 
to do the work when the soil and plants are dry. But 
as we wish to let the celery keep on growing as long as 
the weather will allow, it is not always that we can 
find a pleasant day so late in the season in which to se- 
cure our celery crop. We have to do the best we can. 
As before said, it is desirable to put up the plants when 
dry, but if the work is not done until Just before winter 
is about to set in, there is not much danger that the 
celery will mould, no matter how wet it is when put in 
the trench. 

My plan is, to plow the earth away from the rows of 



CELEEY. 59 

oelery in the field; for this we use a plow from which 
the mould-board is removed, leaving only the point and 
the land-side. By running this plow on the side of the 
row, with the point below the roots, the soil is made so 
loose that the plants can be pulled with great ease and 
rapidity. We drive a stone-boat along the side of the 
row, and place the plants upon this, and take them to 
the trench where they are to be placed for the winter. 
The stalks and leaves are straightened out, and the plants 
are placed as thickly as they will stand in the trench, 
and it will not in the least hurt the celery if there is a 
little fine earth put between each layer of plants. I place 
a strip of corn stalks or straight straw lengthwise along 
the sides of the trench and draw the soil up to it. We 
then plow two or three furrows on each side of the 
trench, if necessary going round and round the trench 
two or three times, until the soil on each side is broken 
up very loose and fine to the depth of eighteen or twenty 
inches, and three or four feet wide. Such a loose mellow 
soil will stand the severest zero weather with little or no 
freezing. And if a few leaves are plowed into the soil or 
placed on top of the trench, there is no danger that the 
celery will be injured by the frost. If the work is well 
done, there will be little danger of the rain getting into 
the trench; but to avoid all risk, we sometimes place a 
board lengthwise of the trench, on top of the celery, and 
cover it with leaves or straw, with three or four inches of 
straw on top. The plowing round and round the trench 
several times, until the ground is made very mellow and 
deep, I regard as very essential, for it enables you to get 
out the celery at any time when it is wanted during the 
winter. 

Another plan for preserving celery for winter use, is 
to put it in a box in the cellar with layers of earth between 
the plants, placing the celery in the box upright in the 
same way we recommended placing it in the trench out 



60 GAEDEKING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

doors. Another method recommended by Mr. Hender- 
son in the American Agriculturist is, to set up 
boards on edge in the cellar, nine inches wide and as 
high as the plants are tall. A few inches of soil being 
placed at the bottom, the celery is set in this board 
trench the same as in that in the ground. At nine 
inches from the first, other boards are set up in the same 
manner, and so on. 

In regard to varieties, I have had the best success with 
the Dwarf White and the Dwarf Crimson. The Boston 
Market has a more spreading habit and throws up nu- 
merous side shoots or suckers, which, when well grown 
and blanched, are very crisp and toothsome. There are 
those who still prefer the larger varieties known by dif- 
ferent names, such as Giant, Superb, Leviathan, etc. 
Unquestionably in this climate the dwarf varieties, as a 
rule, are more easily grown and more likely to give satis- 
faction. 



CELERIAO, OR TURNIP-ROOTED CELERY. 

Celeriac is a variety of celery, but much hardier, and 
having a less erect growth, the plants forming a bul- 
bous enlargement; hence the name Turnip-Rooted. Its 
cultivation is extending in this country, and when well 
grown it is certainly a delicious vegetable. We have 
hardly yet learned how to grow it to perfection. The 
cultivation is in many respects similar to that required 
for celery, but it is not necessary to have the rows so far 
apart, as no earthing up is required. Set out the plants 
in rows thirty inches apart, and a foot apart in the row. 
The land can not be too rich or mellow, or the cultiva- 
tion too thorough. The plants are inclined to throw up 
suckers. These should be removed as soon as they start; 
otherwise these suckers will check the tendency of the 



CORIir — SWEET COEK". 



61 



plant to form a bulb. This is perhaps the most impor- 
tant point to be observed in the culture of celeriac. It 
would not be desirable to go into the cultivation of cele- 
riac on a large scale until one has had some experience, 




Fig. 3. — CELEEIAO. 

but it is a crop which it would be well for every one to 
raise on a small scale until he gets acquainted with its 
merits and uses. 



COEN— SWEET-COEK 



Corn is so easy to grow that very few grow it to per- 
fection. Seedsmen get more scoldings with reference to 
their corn than about any other seed. Every one thinks 



62 GARDEKING FOR TODJMG AKD OLD. 

he can grow it, and wlien the crop fails, we naturally 
blame the person who sells us the seed. One year I had 
a very choice variety of oorn and distributed it freely 
among my friends, but many wrote me that not a kernel 
of it grew. I never felt quite sure whether they did not 
know how to plant the corn, or whether I did not know 
how to save the seed. The truth is, if you get a very 
choice variety of tender, sweet and delicious corn to be 
eaten green, it is a very difficult matter to preserve the 
seed without weakening its germinative power; and even 
if the seed is as good as we can hope to get it, sweet 
corn, if is is really sweet and good, can not safely be 
planted in as cold and damp a soil as common field corn. 
We all wish to get sweet corn as early as possible, and 
it is worth while running the risk of losing our first 
planting, in order to occasionally secure a few dishes of 
very early corn. It is simply the loss of a little seed, for 
if it fails to grow, owing to the soil being too cold and 
damp, or to the crop being destroyed by an early frost, 
the soil can afterward be replanted with a later variety of 
corn, or used for some other crop. But do not wait 
until your first planting is lost before planting again. 
Plant a few hills as soon as the ground can be got into 
good working condition, and a few days later, especially 
if the weather is warm and dry, plant a few more hills, 
and a few days later still put in a larger quantity; in this 
way, three years out of four, you will be pretty certain to 
secure a good supply of this most delicious and popular 
American vegetable. 

The land for sweet corn should be prepared in the 
autumn, and the surface soil, especially, should be heavily 
manured. In the fall get the soil all ready for planting, 
and m the spring do not plow or spade the land, but 
make a few hills by drawing the surface soil together 
with a hoe. For early corn in the garden, and with 
dwarfish varieties, like the Early Minnesota, the rows 



COEN — SWEET CORN". 63 

need not be more than three feet apart, or the hills more 
than eighteen or twenty inches apart in the row. Use 
seed freely, for in the cold, damp soil, much of it may 
fail to grow. I would plant eight or ten kernels in each 
hill, and if they all grow, pinch off (not pull up,) all but 
four of the best plants. If you undertake to pull up the 
plants you will be apt to disturb or injure those which 
are left in the hill. As the plants grow, draw a little 
fresh earth up to them, and if you have reason to fear a 
frost some night, it is worth while to take pieces of news- 
paper, say a foot square, and lay them over the hills of 
corn, putting a little soil on each corner to hold them 
down. The next morning they can be turned back and 
still kept by the side of the hill, weighted with a little 
earth, ready for use the next night if necessary. It re- 
quires but a very slight covering to protect plants from 
frost, but it will not do to let the covering remain on all 
the time, as they need exposure to the sun. 

VAEIETIES. 

The later varieties of corn, such as Crosby's Sugar, 
Eussell's Prolific,' and Moore's Early Concord, though far 
sweeter and better, do not need so much care as we have 
recommended when we wish to secure the earliest possi- 
ble dish of corn. But even for the second early crop, it 
will pay to take pains in the preparation of the soil, 
planting, and cultivation. You can not grow good sweet 
corn as easily as you can good field corn. For the main 
crop, Stowell's Evergreen is one of the most popular vari- 
eties; as ordinarily grown, however, it has ceased to be ev- 
ergreen, it 13 simply a good late variety of sweet corn. 
It is the variety generally grown for the canning and 
evaporating establishments, and the growers for these 
are particularly anxious to get a strain of Stowell's Ever- 
green corn, which has ceased to be evergreen, and which 



64 GARDENING TOE YOUNG AND OLD. 

is sure to mature in a good season. Those who wish so- 
called " Evergreen " corn, must get seed of this variety 
which has been grown several degrees farther south than 
where it is intended to plant it. 

The canning establishments engage farmers to raise 
sweet corn for them. They furnish the seed and agree 
to pay a certain price per ton for ears of corn in the green 
state. In this neighborhood they have been paying 
eight dollars per ton for ears with the husks on. Many 
farmers think it does not pay to grow it for less than ten 
dollars per ton. Of course much depends on the yield 
per acre. On ordinary farm land with ordinary culture, 
the yield is small, and the expense of gathering the crop 
absorbs nearly all the profits; but with a good crop, the 
profit at ten dollars per ton is entirely satisfactory, 
especially if you take the value of the stalks into consid- 
eration. It is a good crop to commence w ith in the field- 
garden; it brings in a little ready money every few days 
at a season when we are quite apt to need it. 

POP-CORN. 

Pop-corn is a small variety grown exclusively for pop- 
ping. It is rarely fed to animals; though I am not sure 
that if we could invent some cheap and expeditious 
method of popping it on a large scale, it would not pay 
well in many cases to grow this corn and pop it for young 
animals or those which are sick. A little pig takes very 
kindly to pop-corn, after it is popped, and I have no 
doubt it is good for him, and if any of the boys wish to 
show their pigs at the fair, after they have given the pig 
a good square meal, and after he has eaten all he will, 
his pigship would enjoy a dessert of pop-corn, either 
plain or sweetened with molasses. 

The cultivation of pop-corn is as easy and simple as 
that of ordinary field corn, but when they first come up. 



COEN-SALAD. 65 

the plants are smaller and weaker, and for this reason 
it is desirable to plant pop-corn ou a dry, warm, sandy- 
soil. The kernels are very small, and I have found that 
in planting, one is apt to drop too many seeds in the 
hill. Pop-corn may be planted in hills three feet apart 
each way, and the land cultivated both ways with a 
horse-hoe, or it may be planted in rows three feet apart, 
and the seed drilled in, afterwards thinning out the 
plants to six or eight inches apart in the row. Pop-corn 
needs good soil and clean cultivation. I cut my crop 
with a reaper and tie it into bundles like wheat; set the 
bundles in a stock in the field until well cured, and if too 
busy to husk it in the fall, draw in the bundles and put 
them on an airy scaffold in the barn, and husk out the 
corn at my leisure. 



COEN-SALAD. 

Some might think that Corn-salad was a variety of com 
grown for salad. In England wheat is called " corn," and 
corn-salad is supposed to derive its name from the fact 
that the plant grows among winter wheat. It is a very 
hardy plant and will, if sown m the fall, usually stand 
the winter and will start to grow in the spring, even 
earlier than spinach. It is a substitute, to some extent, 
for both lettuce and spinach. One of its popular names 
is "Lamb's Lettuce." It is a very easily raised plant, 
and is a favorite salad with those who like it. The cul- 
tivation is very simple. For spring use, sow early in 
September, in rows fifteen inches apart, dropping the 
seeds an inch apart m the row. Protect the plants 
in winter by lightly covering them with straw or 
litter. When used as a substitute for spinach, the land 
cannot be made too rich. For summer, sow in rows, 
fifteen inches apart, as early as the ground can be put 



6B 



GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



into good condition; hoe, and thin out the plants to two 
or three inches apart; gather when young and tender, 




Fi?. 4.— COBN-SAIiAD. 

and sow another bed a week or ten days later for succes- 
sion. The seed is small, and should not be covered more 
than half an inch deep. 

CRESS, OR PEPPER-GRASS. 

Cress is very nice if grown rapidly, and is gathered 
before it runs to seed. It should have very rich land, 
be sown in rows wide enough apart to admit the use of a 
hoe, and about half an inch apart in the row. Sow as early 
as the ground can be worked in the spring, and each 
week afterwards for a succession. 



WATER CRESS. 

There are many places where Water Cress could be 
grown as a market crop with great profit. The real point 



CUCUMBEES. 67 

is, to get low land which can be drained on the one hand, 
and flooded on the other. Ditches may be dug from the 
main stream, two or three feet wide, and deep enough to 
allow the water to flow in to the depth of two to six inch- 
es. In these ditches sow or plant the water cress. For your 
own use, cress can be obtained in ample abundance by 
sowing it in any shallow natural stream. A convenient 
plan is to scatter a little cress seed on the surface of the 
water, and let it float down stream. When the stream is 
once stocked nothing more is needed. It is a pity that 
water cress is not better known and more generally used, 
as it is one of the most healthful and delicious of salads. 



CUCUMBERS. 

Cucumbers, when grown in a hot-bed, will stand a 
good deal of heat, and their successful management re- 
quires some experience. It is usual to plant one hill of 
cucumbers to each sash, after using the hot-bed for start- 
ing other seeds in boxes, which can be removed when the 
cucumbers require more room. For out-door culture, 
early plants can be started in the hot-bed or in the house; 
six or eight seeds can be sown in some fine mould in a 
three-inch pot, and when the weather has become set- 
tled, the plants can be carefully turned out of the pot 
with all the soil adhering to the roots, and transferred to 
a well-prepared hill in the garden. For a few days, the 
plants should be covered with a frame or bottomless box 
having a piece of cotton cloth tacked over the top. 
Before the plants are turned out, the pots should be 
placed in a vessel containing some blood-warm water, 
two or three inches deep, and allowed to remain until the 
ball of earth is thoroughly saturated; this is far better 
than watering after they are transplanted. 

Cucumbers delight in a warm, rich, mellow soil. For 



68 GARDEKING FOR TOU]SrG AND OLD. 

field culture, a good plan is to mark off the ground into 
rows, four feet apart each way, then run a double mould- 
board plow along the mark, both ways. Put one or two 
good forkfuls of well-rotted manure vbere these furrows 
cross each other; then with a hoe, or potato hook, break 
up the manure very fine, and work it into the soil. Turn 
the soil back agam on top of the manure with a plow, 
going on both sides of the row lengthwise and crosswise; 
follow the plow with a roller, going both ways of the 
rows. By doing this, the hills will be four feet apart 
each way, with manure underneath, and a bed of rich, 
mellow soil for the seed. I find it desirable, after using 
the roller, to go over the piece again with a four-foot 
marker, both ways, as this insures straight rows. Drop 
ten or twelve seeds in each hill, and after the plants are 
well up, and have got pretty well out of the reach of the 
Striped-bug, gradually thin them out, until in the end, 
you leave only four of the strongest plants in each hill. 
The after cultivation consists simply in working the soil 
with a cultivator or one-horse plow, both ways between 
the rows, removing all weeds from the hills with a hoe, 
at the same time pulling up a little fresh soil around the 
plants if necessary. 

Another plan is, to mark off the land into rows four 
or five feet apart, run the double mould-board plow along 
the mark, spread the manure in the furrow, and cover it 
up by running the plow on both sides of the row; then 
roll, mark the land again, and drill in the seed in the 
mark just over the manure. Some may think it unneces- 
sary to go over the land the second time with the marker, 
but it is very important to have the rows straight, as any 
boy will find when he undertakes to run a cultivator 
within an inch of the plants in the row. In drilling in 
the seed, set the drill to drop a seed each two or three 
inches, and to cover not over an inch deep. As the plants 
grow, keep them well cultivated, and thin out until you 



CUCUMBERS. 



69 



haye them from eight to ten inches apart in the row. 
There will often be two or three plants close together in 
the row, and if there are no others for fifteen or 
eighteen inches on each side, I should let them all grow. 
Another plan, and I think on the whole the best, is to 
prepare the land Just as thoroughly as you are able; 
spread a quantity of manure on the surface, say fifteen or 
twenty loads per acre; spread it evenly, and then go over 
it two or three times with a smoothing harrow, and if it 
pulls any of the manure into heaps, re-spread them and 
continue harrowing and rolling until the whole surface 
^ soil is as fine and mellow as a garden. In 
f ot it is a garden — at any rate we wish to 
11 <;roduce garden culture on the 
1 I'm. Mark out the land into 
1 vs four or five feet apart, and 
then, with a two-horse plow, 
ill :ow up two furrows on each 
le of the mark, and so con- 
ti ue until the work is all done. 
In this way you will get a bed of 
li ht, mellow, well-manured soil 
in rows of four or five feet 
apart; roll the land, mark it Fig. 6.-teaklt 
WHITE- SPIKE, once more, and drill in the seed. ^'^^^^ cluster. 
Cucumbers are sometimes grown on sod land. The 
land is marked out in rows, four or five feet apart 
both ways, and the seed planted in hills made with a 
hoe. If the land is in good condition, or if two table- 
spoonsfuls of superphosphate are scattered in each hill, 
you will be likely to have a good crop, with very few 
weeds to trouble you. 

The leading varieties are Early Eussian, Early Green 
Cluster, Early Frame, Early White Spine and Improved 
Long Green. The latter two varieties are extensively 
grown for the pickle factories, as well as for market and 




Fi?. 5. 



70 



GARDEKITS"G FOR YOUNG AKD OLD. 



home use. The pickle factories, as a rule, however, pre- 
fer the White Spine. In this neighborhood, they pay 
from one dollar to one dollar and a half per thousand for 
the cucumbers, according to the size; a barrel of small 
ones contains about five thousand, for which they pay 
five dollars. Of the larger size, a barrel holds from one 
thousand two hundred to one thousand six hundred, 
for which they pay from one dollar and eighty cents to 
two dollars and forty cents per barrel. Some of my 
neighbors grow cucumbers for pickles on low, mucky 
soil, which is usually too wet to plow before the middle 
of June. They sometimes have good crops when they 
plant as late as the middle of July. It would, of course, 
be better to drain the land and plant earlier. 

EGG PLANT. 



Egg Plant, in this section, needs to be started in the 
hot-bed or in a box in the house, and, as the plants re- 




Fig, 7. — ^NBW XOBK EttPBOVBD PUKPLE EGG PLANT. 

quire a warm soil when set out in the garden, the seeds 
should not be sown in the house or hot-bed until the first 
or second week in April. Select a warm, sunny spot in 



ENDIVE— KOHL EABI. 71 

the garden, and make the soil very loose and mellow, 
and moderately rich. Set the plants about thirty inches 
apart, keep the ground clean, and as they grow, draw a 
little fresh soil to them. Keep a sharp lookout for the 
Colorado-beetle or Potato-bug, as this likes the Egg-plant 
quite as well as it does potatoes, and if not destroyed 
will ruin the crop. The best variety is the New York 
Improved Purple. 

ENDIVE. 

Endive is a very hardy plant, easily grown, and when 
properly blanched makes an excellent salad. It can be 
sown at any time from March to August, but as it is 
usually eaten late in the fall, it is commonly sown in 
June or July, in rows twelve to fifteen inches apart, and 
the plants thinned out to a foot distant in the row. The 
blanching can be done in any way which excludes the 
light. The usual method is by gathering the leaves 
together and tying them at the top. 

KOHL KABI. 

Kohl Eabi is a variety of the cabbage, but it looks 
more like a tur.nip. It has been called the Turnip-root- 
ed Cabbage. It is grown as a sub- 
stitute for cabbage. It will stand dry 
weather better than turnips, yields 
equally well, and is quite as nutri- 
tious. It can be transplanted easily, 
but it is usually sown, like the tur- 
nip, where it is to remain. It can be 
prontably grown as a field crop for 
Eiff 8— KOHL KABI stock. Unlike the turnip it does not 
impart an unpleasant flavor to the 
milk when fed to cows. The preparation of the land, 
cultivation and harvesting, are similar to that required 




73 



GAKDEKING POR YOUNG AND OLD. 



for ruta baga or Swedes. If any thing, the land should 
be richer and the seeds sown a little earlier. The best 
variety for stock or for table use, is the Large White or 
Large Green. For table use these should be grown 
quickly and used before they become stringy, which they 
will be apt to be if allowed to get larger than a teacup. 



LETTUCE. 



Every body raises Lettuce. While no plant is more 
easily grown, comparatively few people have it in per- 
fection. The reason for this is three-fold. The soil is 





Fig. 
"the deacon" lettuce. 



Fig. 10. 

cos LETTUCE. 



not made rich enough, it is not thoroughly cultivated 
and hoed, and the plants are left entirely too close 
together. As an out-door crop, lettuce can be sown in 
the spring as early as the weather will permit. I have 
sown it in February, and though we had very severe 
weather afterwards, the plants were not injured by the 
frost. In the same field, however, the same variety, 
" The Deacon," sown April 14th, was just as large by the 
first of June as that sown in February, The best way 
with this, as with other hardy crops, is to sow as early as 



MELONS — MUSK. 73 

the ground can be brought into good condition, but 
not earlier. 

My own plan in raising lettuce is, to make the land as 
fine and mellow as possible, and drill in the seed in rows, 
twenty-one inches apart. This is wide enough to admit 
the use of the horse-hoe. As soon as the rows can be 
traced, we go through with the cultivator, and in the 
course of a few days go through again; the object being 
to make the soil as loose and mellow as possible. I have 
gone through the rows three or four times with a culti- 
vator before the plants were large enough to be thinned 
out with a hoe. This thinning out is the point necessary 
for success. It seems a great waste of seeds, of plants, 
and of land, to thin out the plants to eight or ten inches 
apart, but it is the true plan. You must dash your hoe 
through them boldly, cutting out the plants so that they 
will stand the width of the hoe apart; then with the hoe 
push out all the surplus ones. An ordinary hoe slants 
too much forward to do the work properly; you should 
heat the shank of the hoe, and bend it until the blade is 
nearly at right angles with the handle. JFor thinning 
out turnips, beets, mangels, etc., such a hoe will enable 
you to do the work without often resorting to thinning 
out the plants with the fingers. If the land is in proper 
condition, and you have a good variety, you will get a 
splendid crop of the largest and finest heads of lettuce, 
from the last of June to the middle of September. 



MELONS— MUSK. 

A few hills of Musk Melons can be started in the hot- 
bed or in the house, as recommended for cucumbers, and 
when the ground is warm, the plants can be set out in 
the open ground and shaded for a few days, until they 
get finally started. On a farm where land is abundant, 
4 ■ ' 



74 



GAEDBNING FOE TOUNvG AND OLD. 



the better plan is, to put in the melon seed in the open 

ground, as soon as the soil is in good working condition. 

You may lose half your seed and he obliged to replant, 

but in three years out of four, 

you will get as good and as 

^ early a crop as you would by 

g transplanting from the hot-bed. 

g The mistake people make is, in 

o not using seed enough. You 

3 ought to sow at least three 

g times as many as you think you 

' will need, even of the best of 

g seed. Melons are not all of the 

o 

g ^ best quality, and if you have 

I ^ more than you need, you can 
g o reject those which do not please 
g you. We do not expect every 
g apple on a tree to be perfect, 
I and we need not expect every 
% melon on the vine to be of the 
choicest quality. The methods 
H recommended for the cultiva- 
■^ I tion of cucumbers are generally 
►' adapted to the production of 
g melons. If possible, the land 
^ should be made even richer 
¥ for melons than for cucumbers. 
^ I have never yet seen land too 
s rich for them. Plant largely 
g and sow thickly, so that if the 
seed all grows, you can thin 
out the weak plants as directed 
for cucumbers. The best varieties are: the Early Chris- 
tiana, the Nutmeg, Green Citron, White Japanese, and 
Casaba. Of the first three, Ifctmeg, Christiana, and 
Citron, the best variety, in my judgment, is the one of 







MELO]S"S — WATER. 75 

wliich you happen to plant the most largely. If you 
have a large crop you can select delicious melons from 
either of these varieties. 



MELONS— WATER. 

"Watermelons can be grown as easily as pumpkins 
or corn, but you can not grow corn and watermelons 
together. The land must be entirely devoted to the mel- 
ons, and the mistake that people make, is, they try to 
grow melons and thistles on the same ground. The 
thistles pump up a large quantity of water from the soil, 
and when we have dry, hot weather, the melons are left 
without sufficient moisture. The weather can not be too 
hot for this crop, provided it has sufficient moisture and 
plant food. People are apt to think that if they keep 
the soil clean immediately around the hills, the rest of 
the land can be suffered to produce weeds. This is a 
great mistake; the roots of the melons are at least as long 
as the vines, and in our dry, hot climate, they need all 
the moisture the land contains. The distance apart at 
which it is best to plant watermelons depends on the 
climate. In this section, they will do well planted in 
hills or rows four or five feet apart, but as we go south, 
we must increase the distance. One of my correspond- 
ents in Texas, wrote me that his watermelons completely 
covered the ground, even when they are planted fifteen 
or twenty feet apart. 

I have grown excellent watermelons on light, rich, 
sandy soil, in rows five feet apart. We drilled in the 
seed with an ordinary garden drill, using the hole made 
for sowing corn. As the plants grow, thin out, leaving 
them from eight to fifteen inches apart in the row, just 
as you happen to find them. If the plants are thin, and 
you find two or three near together, leave them all to 



76 



GAEDElSriNG FOR TOUNG AN'D OLD. 



grow if necessary. If the land is rich enough, and you 
keep it thoroughly cultivated and free from weeds, you 
may expect a great crop of melons, and if you don't get 

it, try again. When 
the vines commence 
to run, the weeds also 
begin to grow, and 
I you may think that 
I you can not get 
through the rows 
with a cultivator; 
hut by going ahead 
of the horse, you may 
move the vines out of 
I g the way, and leave 
plenty of room for 
^^ the horse and culti- 
vator. Make thor- 
ough work, going 
twice in the row, or 
as often as is neces- 
sary to kill every 
weed, and break up 
the hard, dry soil. 
5 Work it until it is as 
m mellow as a garden, 
and if there are any 
^ weeds left which you 
can not reach with a 
cultivator, cut them 
out with a hoe, or 
pull them by hand. 
Watermelons may be planted in hills, and the land 
prepared as recommended for cucumbers, except that it 
is necessary to make the hills wider apart. The method, 
however, of plowing the land into ridges, or hills, both 




MUSTARD. 77 

ways, is Just as applicable to watermelons and mnsk- 
melons as to cucumbers. The best varieties are: the 
Black Spanish, Ice Cream, and Mountain Sweet. They 
can be planted a little earlier than muskmelons, but 
there is nothing gained by doing it before the land can be 
put into the finest condition. A common mistake in plant- 
ing melons and cucumbers is, to cover the seed too deep; 
half an inch is quite deep enough for both muskmelons 
and cucumbers. Watermelons, the seed of which is 
much larger, can be deeper, but much depends on the 
nature and condition of the soil. Many a hill of melon 
seed is literally smothered by being covered with an inch 
of damp soil which bakes on the surface, while two inches 
of dry, mellow sandy soil would do no harm. 

CITROIJr WATBRMELOIf. 

This variety is grown exclusively for preserving. The 
fruit is round, skin light, and dark-green, handsomely 
striped and marbled; a few hills should be planted in 
every garden. The cultivation is precisely the same as 
for other melons. It is the smaller of the melons on 
page 76. 

MUSTAED. 

For salad the cultivation of Mustard is the same as for 
cress. Sow in rows wide enough 
apart to admit the use of the hoe, 
dropping two or three seeas to each 
inch of row. For an early crop, se- 
lect a warm, sandy soil, sow as early 
as the soil is dry and mellow, cover 
not more than one-quarter inch " 
deep. In a week or ten days, sow another bed, and 
continue to do so at intervals for a succession. The 




78 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

best variety for salad is the "White Mustard. As 
a field crop this deserves attention; our climate is well 
adapted to its cultivation. As a crop for plowing under 
to enrich sandy soil, or to lighten and mellow a heavy 
one, White Mustard could often be used with special 
advantage. It can also be profitably grown for feeding 
to sheep on the land, or for feeding green to cows, pigs, 
and horses. A great crop can be grown for this purpose 
on good, mellow land; but unless the land is mellow, it 
is of no use to try it in our dry, hot climate. It may be 
sown as late as the first of July, and still give a large crop 
in September and October. It must be eaten before 
frost. After a severe frost, it is only fit for plowing un- 
der for a manure. 

The better way is to sow about twenty pounds of seed 
per acre, in rows twenty-one inches apart, or far enough 
to admit the use of a horse-hoe. As soon as the plants 
appear, run the cultivator between the rows, and con- 
tinue to cultivate at intervals, until the plants are fairly 
started. They grow slowly at first, but if the land is in 
good condition, when they are once started, they grow 
with great rapidity and will smother the weeds and leave 
the land remarkably clean. 



NASTURTIUM.— TEOP^OLUM. 

In our dry, hot climate, the Nasturtium or Indian 
Cress, can be grown with great ease and certainty. As the 
plants are very tender, the slightest frost injuring them, 
they should have a warm, dry soil, moderately rich, and 
kept free from weeds. There are two varieties usually 
grown, one of which is a climber, and will run up on a 
pole or trellis for eight or ten feet. The other is a dwarf 
variety, growing from one to two feet high. The latter 
may be allowed to trail on the ground, or be furnished 



OKEA — OE GUMBO. 79 

with a few short sticks. The nasturtium is grown for 
both ornament and use. The flowers are very beautiful, 
and the seed-pods are pickled and used as a substitute for 
capers. A row of the dwarf kind, with a few short sticks 
eighteen inches long, and stuck a foot apart, not on the 
sides, but in the center of the row, is a charming addition 
to any garden. 

It is desirable to get the plants as early as possible, 
but they are very tender, and if we sow early, we run the 
risk of having them destroyed by frost; but we can well 
afford to take the risk. Sow two rows. The seed is cheap. 
Sow one row at the same time you plant corn. The seed 
is large and may be coverad from one to two inches deep, 
according to the nature of the soil. The earlier you 
plant, and the heavier the soil the shallower should be 
the seed. A good plan is,, to make a double row, just as 
we sometimes do for peas. The rows may be about four 
inches apart, with one stred to each two inches of row. 
The sticks can be placed between these narrow rows. If 
more than one of these double rows is needed, the large 
climbing nasturtium should be planted in rows five feet 
apart, but the dwarf may be planted in rows thirty inches 
apart. The second planting, which should never be 
neglected, may be made about the time we plant beans. 



OKRA— OE GUMBO. 

At the North it is desirable to raise Okra plants in a 
hot-bed, or in a box in the house, and transplant them 
to the garden about the middle of May. If the seed is 
sown out of doors, select a loose, warm soil, with a 
southern exposure. There are two varieties, the Dwarf 
and Tall; the former is the best. Plant the dwarf kind 
in rows thirty inches apart, and from eight to ten inches 
in the row, or sufiiciently wide to admit the free use of 



80 GAEDENIKG POE YOUJifG AND OLD. 

the hoe. The tall kind should be in rows three feet 
apart, and the plants a foot in the row. After they are 
well started, nothing is required except to keep the land 
free from weeds. The principal use of okra is in soups. 
The green pods are used for this purpose; they contain 
much mucilage which thickens the soup, and imparts an 
agreeable flavor. It is regarded as heathful and nu- 
tritious. The ripe seeds roasted and ground have some- 
times been used as a substitute for coffee. 



ONIONS. 

Great improvements have been made in the cultivation 
of Onions, and still greater improvements are yet to be 
made, especially in our methods of drilling in the seed 
and hoeing, and weeding the crop. I have for several 
years sown my onion seed in rows, from twenty-one to 
twenty-five inches apart, and cultivated with a horse-hoe. 
It is a great saving of labor, but many will object to the 
plan, because they think they can get a much heavier 
yield per acre when the seed is sown in closer rows, say 
a foot apart. Such is probably the case. It is a question 
of land versus labor. The improvement I want to see 
made is, in having a drill which will sow four rows at a 
time. It would be better, probably, to have the two cen- 
ter rows twenty inches apart, and the other rows a foot 
apart. This would give plenty of room for a quiet horse 
to walk between the center rows. "We should have the 
piece sown as follows: there would be one space twenty 
inches wide, and then four rows a foot apart, each, and 
then another wide space of twenty inches, and so on. 
We must then have a cultivator or horse-hoe that would 
go between these rows. It must be the exact size of the 
drill, and provided with a steerage attachment which 
would give us control of the hoes or cultivator teeth. If 



ONioiTS. 81 

the drill was rigid, if there was any deyiation from a 
straight line in any of the drills, there would be the same 
deviation in all of them, and if we could avoid cutting 
up the plants in one row, we should also avoid doing so 
in the other three rows. Such a drill and cultivator 
combined would be not only very useful for sowing and 
cultivating onions, but for many other farm and garden 
crops, such as turnips, beets, parsnips, carrots, etc. 

Until we have such a machine, we must do the best 
we can with the tools we now have. In fact, a farmer 
who undertakes to raise onions for the first time as a field 
crop, could hardly use such a machine as I have proposed, 
he would require to have his land much cleaner and 
smoother, and freer from stones than would likely to be 
the case on any ordinary farm. Land for onions has to 
be made to order. Onions do better on old onion land 
than when they are raised on any ordinary soil for the 
first time. Nearly all other crops do better in rotation, 
than when grown year after year on the same land. It is 
not clear why onions should be an exception. I think 
chemistry and plant food have far less to do with it than 
the mechanical state of the land. If a man or a boy would 
bestow the necessary amount of labor in preparing and 
enriching the land, I see no reason to doubt that he 
could get just as good a crop the first year, as he could the 
second, third, or tenth year; but no man will do it; per- 
haps a boy may. There was some excuse for men in 
years gone by — they had not the necessary tools. With 
our modern implements we can place land in wonderfully 
fine condition, at comparatively little expense, the first 
year; but much of the work ought to be done in the 
autumn. Suppose you try how rich, and mellow, you 
can make an acre of land this fall. It does not make 
very much difference how you do it. The first thing, 
however, is to get off all the stones, and stumps, and 
rubbish. If a harrow will do it any good, harrow it; if 



82 GAKDEKIl^G FOR TOUIW AKD OLD. 

not, plow it, and then roll, and harrow, and roll again, 
until every lump is broken that the harrow and roller 
can reach; then plow again, and if you should turn under 
twenty or thirty loads of well-rotted manure, so much the 
better. A hundred loads to the acre will do no harm, 
provided it is thoroughly mixed with the soil. In fact, 
it is probably this intimate adpaixture of the manure with 
the soil, that makes old onion land so much better than 
new. "Work in, therefore, all the manure you can; you 
can not put on too much, and you can not, at all events 
you certainly will not, work it in too thoroughly. 

If the land is properly prepared in the autumn, it is 
not necessary or desirable to plow it again in the spring; 
it might be gone over with a gang-plow or cultivator, or 
if the soil is light, a good harrow will be sufficient. It is 
very essential to get in the seed as soon as the frost is out 
of the ground. In fact, the onions may be sown to ad- 
vantage as soon as the first two or three inches are thawed 
out and moderately dry, even though the sub-soil is still 
a mass of frozen earth. Onions are quite hardy, and will 
stand an ordinary frost without injury. 

In sowing onions with a drill, it is very desirable to 
have the tube, or coulter, which makes the drill row in 
which the seed is deposited, as narrow as possible. It 
was thought at one time better to scatter the seed in a 
wide drill mark, but there is nothing to be gained by it, 
and the wider it is, the greater space is there which we 
can not reach with the hoe, and which we must weed 
with the fingers. Our drill makers do not seem to 
understand this, or instead of the rough cast-iron shank, 
which many of them have hitherto furnished, they would 
make a bright, sharp, narrow st^d. coulter, which would 
not clog or make too wide a drill mark. 

As soon as the rows can be traced, go through with a 
hoe. It will do the onions good, even if there are no weeds. 
Some people recommend going over the land with a steel 



OKIONS. 83 

rake, but I have never yet had sufficient courage to rake 
my crop of onions hard enough to kill the weeds. If you 
do the work yourself, I think it is very likely that there 
are times when a steel rake would destroy millions of 
weeds without injuring the onions. On the whole, how- 
ever, I think we had better depend on a sharp, bright 
hoe, skillfully used on each side of the rows, pulling out 
with the fingers any weeds that may be left in the row. 
If you have a large crop, and there is danger that the 
weeds may get the start of you, it is better not to stop to 
pull out the weeds at the first hoeing; go through the 
patch with a hoe, and then, when the whole piece is once 
hoed, go over it again, hoeing and hand-weeding at the 
same time. It is generally necessary to weed onions twice. 
The only safe rule is, to hoe and weed as often as is 
necessary to kill every weed, and even if there are no 
weeds visible, it pays to run a cultivator or hoe between 
the rows once a week until the onions are five or six inches 
high. Success in raising onions depends largely on three 
things: rich land, early sowing, and clean cultivation. 

The best varieties are the Yellow Danvers, Early Eed 
Globe, White Globe, and the Large Eed Wethersfield. 
The Early Eed- Globe can be grown successfully where the 
later varieties, like the Large Wethersfield, are apt to run 
up to scallions. Scallions are the dread of the onion 
grower. A scallion is an onion with a thick neck. In- 
stead of forming a bulb early in the season, the top then 
withering down, the onion keeps on growing, throwing 
out a great mass of roots, forming a long, thick neck, 
with a comparatively immature bulb. Sometimes scal- 
lions are the result of poor seed. I do not mean seed that 
will not grow, but that which is raised from late, imma- 
ture onions, not good enough to send to market. But no 
respectable seed-grower ever raises such seed, and we must 
look for other causes to leani why onions so frequently 
turn to scallions. Late sowing is the most frequent cause; 



84 GARDENING FOE, YOUNG AND OLD. 

neglecting to hoe and weed the crop when young, is an- 
other cause, and possibly, poor land has something to do 
with it. It is usual to sow five pounds of onion seed per 
acre. But I am aware that this does not tell you how 
thick you must sow the seed. I should set the drill to 
drop about three seeds to each inch of row. It is far bet- 
ter to have an onion crop too thick than too thin. In 
hoeing and weeding, no matter how careful you may be, 
more or less onions will be destroyed. 

The market demand is not so much for large onions 
as formerly. It is far better to have three moderate- 
sized bulbs than one very large one, and the old practice 
of thinning onions so as to leave only one bulb to each 
three or four inches of row, is now abandoned by all ex- 
perienced growers. Onions will grow in bunches, three, 
four, or five in a bunch, and if the land is rich enough, 
and the rows are sufiiciently wide apart, a dozen, fifteen, 
or even twenty onions can be grown on each foot of row. 

The Onion-maggot is sometimes quite troublesome. 
It rarely troubles me, but one of my neighbors, who 
raises large crops of onions on what was formerly a 
Black-Ash swamp, and which is even still only partially 
drained, occasionally suffers much loss. He thinks an 
application of four hundred pounds of salt per acre, sown 
broadcast early in the spring, will kill the maggot; per- 
haps so, perhaps not. The salt, however, will do no 
harm, and may otherwise do good, even if it does not 
always kill the maggot. I have known Peruvian guano 
to be used for the same purpose with decided advantage; 
and so with superphosphate of lime, or any other good 
fertilizer. Any thing which will promote rapid growth, 
will lesson the chances of injury from maggots or loss 
from scallions. 

Perhaps a word should be said in regard to the best 
land for onions. In point of fact there is no best land 
for them; you must make the land. Onions will grow 



OHiOKS. 85 

on all kinds of soil, ranging from the most spongy muck 
to the heaviest clay. Probably the most profitable onion 
ground would be a mucky swamp, with a never failing 
stream running through it, with sufficient fall to afford 
good drainage three feet deep. If such a swamp were 
thoroughly subdued, drain-tiles laid two and a half to 
three feet deep, every three or four rods, and then a dam 
built across this stream, with a gate which could be ele- 
vated or lowered at pleasure, the most magnificent crops 
of onions could be grown every year, with comparatively 
little labor. In the spring, the gate of course would be 
lifted, and the under-drains, even though they had to 
discharge into the swollen stream, would remove the 
stagnant water, and leave the surface dry and firm, and 
the onions could be sown as soon as we had a few fine 
days in spring. When dry weather set in, and the crop 
needed more moisture, shut down the gate, and as the 
water rose in the stream it would flow back into the un- 
der drains, and the dry, porous, mucky soil would suck 
it up like a sponge, and the dryer and hotter the weather 
the more rapidly would the onions grow. "We might 
safely calculate on getting from such a soil an average 
crop, year after year, of one thousand bushels per acre. 
Onions will sell readily m the autumn, shipped direct 
from the field, for seventy-five cents to one dollar per 
bushel, and you can tell as well as I, whether it would 
pay to make the improvement suggested. Onion land is 
often rented on shares, the owner furnishing half the 
seed, and half the manure, and the tenant doing all the 
work, and giving the landowner half the crop. On such 
a piece of land as I have described, the net profit to the 
owner would average at least three hundred and sixty 
dollars an acre, which is six per cent, interest on six 
thousand dollars. 



86 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

ONION SETS. 

Onion Sets, so called, are simply small onions. If a 
small onion is set out in the fall or in the scoring, it will 
grow and produce either one very large onion, or two or 
three good sized ones. In the Southern States, and in 
many sections of the South-west, it is not easy to grow 
onions direct from the seed, or "black seed" as the 
growers often call it, to distinguish it from the sets. 
There onions are grown from sets, and there is a large 
demand for these small onions or sets, the price ranging 
from five dollars to ten dollars per bushel. The smaller 
the onions, provided the bulbs are mature and well 
formed, the more valuable they are, because a given 
number will not only plant more land, but there is less 
likelihood of their running up to seed. Onion sets are 
grown in the same way as ordinary onions, except that 
they are sown very much thicker. 

Many people have an idea that the way to raise onion 
sets is to sow the seed late in the spring, and to select 
rather poor, sandy land. This is a mistake; they need 
good, warm, dry and rich soil, and the earlier the seeds 
are sown the better. In this section, the crop should be 
ripe not later than the first of August. It is a good plan 
to prepare the ground in the fall, as recommended for 
onions; then in the spring, mark off the land into rows, 
thirty inches apart, taking pains to make the rows 
straight, then drill in six rows of seed from an inch and 
a half to two inches apart alongside of the mark; set the 
drill to drop five or six seeds in each inch of row, in each 
of the six rows. In other words, when the set of rows is 
sown, you should have from thirty to thn-ty-six seeds in 
each lineal inch. The advantage of the plan is, that 
you can nse the horse-hoe or cultivator between the wide 
rows, and between the narrow rows a sharp pointed 
onion-hoe can be used to break the crust, and kill the 



OKiOKS. 87 

weeds; weeds which can not be reached with the hoe 
should be pulled out by hand. It is absolutely essential 
to keep the crop clean. The object is, to stimulate 
growth on the one hand, and to produce early maturity 
on the other, with a tendency to produce bulbs. We 
wish to raise dwarf onions. We can not do this unless 
eyery condition for the growth of the plant, except root 
pruning and excessive crowding, is favorable. It is not 
easy to keep onion sets during the winter, and in fact 
the better way is to plant the sets in the fall. They will 
stand the winter without injury, and give a larger crop. 
If, however, you wish to keep the sets through the win- 
ter, do not put them in a damp cellar, but in a dry loft, 
which can be kept as near the freezing point as possible, 
so as to prevent them from starting to grow. Freezing 
will not injure them, provided you can keep them from 
thawing until they are wanted in the spring. 

EAISIHG ONIOK SEED. 

It is a very important matter to have good seed, and I 
recommend my young friends to select a few of their 
choicest and best onions and set them out every fall for 
seed. Onions for seed can be set in spring or autuma, 
but the latter is the best time. And here I would like 
to tell the boys an important discovery which I think I 
have made, and which I am almost tempted to keep for 
my own use and profit, as I think there is money in it. 
I have for the last eighteen years been growing seed of 
the Yellow Danvers variety. I selected the very best 
bulbs from a large crop each year, and I succeeded in get- 
ting a strain of the choicest seed. It produced the finest 
onions, but I could get scarcely any seed. When I raised 
the seed it was very valuable; but there was so little of it, 
that it has sometimes cost me one hundred dollars per 
pound. The onions were so good that they would not 



88 GARDENING POR YOUNG AND OLD. 

produce seed. The discovery that I think I have made 
is this : sow the seed in the spring in the usual way, ex- 
cept that you sow it very thickly; the object being to 
get small bulbs. Set these small onions out in the Ml, 
and let them produce large onions, rejecting any that go 
to seed at that time. The next fall, set out these large 
onions for seed. The way we do this, is to make the 
land very rich, thoroughly mixing the manure with the 
soil and have it as clean and mellow as possible. Mark 
off the land with a common corn-marker in rows forty- 
two inches apart; set out the onions in these rows, four 
or five inches apart, or so near that they will almost 
touch each other in the row, press them down into the 
mellow soil, and cover carefully with the hoe or plow. 
If the plow is used, follow with a hoe so as to be sure 
that every bulb is well covered to the depth of two or 
three inches. The best time here to set out onions for 
seed is about the first of October. Nothing more needs 
to be done until spring, when the soil must be thoroughly 
and repeatedly cultivated, and not a weed suffered to 
grow. The seed is gathered by cutting off the heads into 
baskets, and spreading them out on canvas to dry. 
Thrash with a flail, and clean by running through a fan- 
ning mill. 

THE POTATO ONION". 

The cultivation of Potato Onions is similar to that of 
onion sets. The small potato onions are planted early in 
spring, in rows fifteen inches apart, and four to five 
inches distant in the row; keep the land clean, and that 
is all there is to be done. Each small bulb will make a 
large one. The next spring set out some of the large 
bulbs that have been saved for the purpose, and each will 
give a cluster of small ones to be planted the following 
year. This is the usual routine, but generally a share of 



PARSLEY. 89 

those planted will split up into several small ones in- 
stead of making one large onion. 

THE TOP, OR TREE ONIOiir. 

When an ordinary onion is set out in autumn or in. 
spring, it throws up a stalk with a large head of flowers, 
followed by seed. A Top-onion grows in precisely the 
same manner, but it throws up a stalk, on the top of 
which, instead of seed, we have a bunch or cluster of 
small onions. When these small bulbs are set out in the 
fall or spring, they give us a crop of very early green 
onions. The objection to the top onion is, that when 
ripe it does not keep well, and should be used in the fall. 



PARSLEY. 

Parsley seed is very slow in germinating, and it is de- 
sirable to sow it as early in the spring as possible. The 
soil should be prepared in the fall, and the seed sown as 
soon as the frost is out of the ground. Sow in rows fif- 
teen inches apart, dropping three or four seeds to each 
inch of row ; keep the ground hoed and entirely free from 
weeds. Thin out the plants to two inches apart in the 
row. There is a rapidly increasing demand for parsley, 
not only for garnishing, but for flavoring soups, etc. The 
best variety for the garden is the Extra Double- Curled. 
In Europe, parsley is often sown with a mixture of grasses 
and cloYer, as a pasture for sheep; for this purpose, the 
common straight-leaved variety is the best. The seed is 
cheaper and the yield larger. Sheep are very fond of 
parsley, and it is supposed to give an agreeable flavor to 
the mutton. Parsley is biennial; if sown this spring it 
makes only leaves, but the next year it runs up to seed. 
During the winter and spring, previous to its going to 



90 GAKDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

seed, a small bed would afford an abundance. But if you 
have no parsley at all in the garden, and wish a supply 
early in the summer, a good plan is, to sow the seed in a 
box in the house, in February, and transplant it to the 




Fig. 14.— PAESLEY. 

open ground as soon as the weather is suitable. It is a 
hardy, vigorous plant, and grows rapidly when fairly 
started, but is slow until the plants get firm hold of the 
soil. 

PAESNIR 

Taking one year with another, there are few crops 
which the farm-gardener can raise to greater advantage 
and profit, in proportion to the labor required, than the 
Parsnip. It is hardier than the carrot, can be sown earlier, 
requires less weeding, yields quite as many or more bush- 
els to the acre, and the roots, if we wish, can be left in 
the soil all winter without injury. If desired, parsnips 
can be sown in the fall; the only precaution necessary 
being to put in about twice as much seed as you would 



PARSKIP. 91 

in the spring, so that if any of the plants are killed by 
the winter, there "will be enough left. The usual time of 
sowing parsnips, and probably the best time, is about 
that for planting Indian corn. There is nothing to be 
gained by sowing before the land can be brought into the 
very best possible condition. On my own farm, we 
usually sow about the first of June, in rows twenty-one 
inches apart, sowing about three seeds to each inch of 
drill. It pays to sow thickly, as the plants come up better 
and hold the weeds in check, and they can then be 
thinned out with a sharp-pointed hoe to three inches 
apart in the row, at the same time cutting out many of 
the weeds. Keep the ground thoroughly cultivated and 
hoed, and if the land is rich and well prepared, you can 
hardly fail of getting a large crop. As before stated, 
parsnips can be left in the ground all winter, and those 
not required before spring are better if left out. Those 
needed for use in winter and early spring, must be dug 
in the fall and kept in the cellar, mixed with sand, or 
what is better still, pitted in the field, or on some sandy 
knoll near the house. 

It quite often happens that parsnips will bring a 
very high price in early spring, before the frost is out of 
the ground, and those who have them in pits can sell at 
a large profit. Last spring, I was offered seventy-five 
cents a bushel for my entire crop. It is not at all a dif- 
ficult matter to raise from six hundred to eight hundred 
bushels to the acre. True, there are required good soil, 
deeply and thoroughly worked, plenty of manure, early 
sowing, good seed, and good cultivation. The best vari- 
ety for deep, rich soils, is the Long White Dutch, and 
for a somewhat shallower soil, the Hollow Crown. It is 
very important to get good fresh seed, as that which is 
more than one year old will nearly always fail to grow. 



92 GAEDEKING FOE YOUNG AN^D OLD. 

TO EAISE PAESISTP SEED. 

Where the crop of Parsnip seed is not injured by the 
caterpillar {Depressaria cicutella), its production is easy 
and profitable. But it is desirable to take more pains in 
raising it than is sometimes given to the crop. The seed 
should never be grown from plants which have been left 
in the ground all winter, and suffered to throw up their 
stalks where they stand, as it is impossible to tel-l which 
are and which are not the best formed roots. The roots 
should be taken up in autumn, and carefully selected, 
rejecting all that show any disposition to fork or throw 
out fangs. The smoothest^ handsomest, and best formed 
roots only, should be selected for seed. Prepare the land 
the previous autumn, plowing it not less than ten inches 
deep, and working in a good coat of well-rotted manure, 
not less than twenty tons per acre. The more thoroughly 
the land can be worked the better; then, as early in the 
spring as the soil and season will admit, mark out the 
land in rows, forty-two inches apart, and with a good 
plow throw out a deep, straight furrow. Set out the pars- 
nips six to eight inches apart in the furrow, and, if neces- 
sary, use a crowbar to make holes for them; then turn 
the furrow back again upon the parsnips, finishing the 
work with a hoe, taking care to pull the soil well up to 
the crowns. If the soil is loose and mellow, it may be 
half an inch or so deep on top of the roots. Nothing 
more is required, except to keep the land well cultivated 
and hoed, as long as you can get between the rows with 
a horse. If any weeds are left, they must be pulled out 
by hand, or cut off with the hoe. If the caterpillars ap- 
pear, there is nothing to be done but to give them a 
gentle pressure with the finger and thumb. If they bury 
themselves in the umbels, do not wait to ascertain 
whether the caterpillar is in the nest or not, give it the 
benefit of the doubt. I have pinched many a nest with 



PEAS. 93 

a good deal of satisfaction, and with much profit to the 
crop of seed. 

PEAS. 

The market gardener, and in fact all the gardeners, 
take great pains to get Peas as early as possible. For- 
tunately the seed is very hardy and wiU germinate at a 
low temperature, except some of the late and large vari- 
eties, such as the Veitch's Perfection. In three seasons 
out of four, the seed of these is apt to rot in the ground, 
but the moderately sized, early varieties, which, unfor- 
tunately are not, and I fear never can be, so sweet as the 
large and later kinds, can be planted the moment the 
frost is out of the ground. Last year I planted my peas 
in February, and I do not think one in a hundred failed 
to germinate. For early peas, therefore, it is necessary 
to prepare the soil the autumn previous, taking just as 
much pains as if you were going to sow the crop at that 
time. I would even mark out the rows where the seeds 
are to be sown; then in the spring, open a row, or drill, 
two, or three inches wide with a hoe, about two inches 
deep, and sow the peas, not more than half an inch apart, 
or five or six peas to each lineal inch of this wide row. 
Thick seeding is very desirable, not only for early peas, 
but for nearly all early crops; the seeds in germinating 
give out heat, and when thick in the row or bed, they 
help to keep each other warm. 

Early peas should be sown on the warmest and dryest 
land, it does not make much difference whether it is light 
or heavy, provided it is dry and can be readily worked 
in the spring without afterwards baking. A sandy loam, 
and from that to a light sand, is best, but whatever the 
character of the soil, a good crop of very early peas can 
not be grown unless it is rich. For a second early crop, 
it is not necessary to take so much pains; still, the better 



94 



GARDEKIKG FOR YOUN^G AND OLD. 



the soil and the better the preparation, with a liberal 
amount of manure, the more satisfactory will be the crop. 

Sow as soon as the land 
'"'^ '^ can be got in good 

working condition; the 
earlier the better. Peas, 
as a rule, cannot be 
sown too early. The 
succession of crops 
should be looked after, 
by sowing varieties that 
are early, second early, 
medium and late, rath- 
er than by the time of 
sowing. In the garden 
we usually sow all ex- 
cept the dwarf varieties 
in rows, three to four 
feet apart, and stick 
brush on each side of 
the row for the peas to 
climb upon. This is 
done for the conven- 
ience of picking, and 
it may be that a larger 
yield is obtained. 

In raising them on a 
large scale for picking 
green for market, or for 
the canning establish- 
ments, peas are never 
stuck or brushed. My 
own plan is to drill in the seed in a double row 
twenty-eight inches apart. We take a wheat drill 
which has coulters or tubes, seven inches apart; the 
two outside tubes we wire together, so that they are 




Fig. 15. — GREEN PEA PODS. 



PEAS. 95 

not more than two inches apart; the next three tubes 
are drawn up and shut off so that they will not sow; 
the next two tubes are wired together as before^ and 
allowed to sow, and the next three tubes are shut off, and 
the next two outside tubes are wired together and 
allowed to sow. We thus sow three double rows at a 
time, and we have a space of fully two feet between the 
rows, in which we can use the cultivator or horse-hoe. 
The plan works admirably. I like to sow the peas 
thickly, and we set the drill so that, if all the tubes were 
running, we should sow four bushels per acre, but as 
there are twelve tubes in the drill, and we only sow with 
six, we use but two bushels per acre. This is thick 
enough, but it is not a bit too thick; I should prefer to sow 
thicker than this, rather than thinner. To succeed in rais- 
ing green peas for market in this way, we must not expect 
a large crop on average farm land, with average farm treat- 
ment. We want the dryest and best of land. It should be 
free from stones and sticks, and in the very best mechan- 
ical condition, with a liberal supply of manure. The soil 
should be made ready the autumn previous, using only a 
gang-plow or cultivator in the spring. The roller and 
harrow should be used again and again, if necessary, 
until every clod is broken, and the surface soil is as loose 
and mellow as a garden. In fact, it is a garden, and we 
are proposing to grow a very important and profitable 
crop. 

The best varieties for market are: the Extra Early 
Kent, for the earliest crop; Kentish Invicta, for the 
second early, and the Champion of England, or the White 
Marrowfat, for the last crop. In quality. Champion of 
England is by far the best variety. In the garden, for 
home use, we have many varieties of great merit. For 
the earliest crop, I know of nothing better than a good 
strain of Extra Early Kent. It has a dozen or more 
different names; the value of the alleged varieties de- 



96 GAEDENIlfG FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

pends oil the care with which they are selected for. seed. 
They have a constant tendency to degenerate on the one 
hand, or to improve on the other, and a skillful and ex- 
perienced grower, by selecting the earliest peas and those 
which are the most wrinkled, can very soon obtain a 
strain of early peas which is certain to give satisfaction. 
If, on the other hand, all the earliest pods are picked off 
for your own table or for market, and those which are left 
used for seed, you will soon have a strain of Early Kent 
Peas that are no better than the Canada Creeper, or other 
small, round, smooth, common field pea. Peas do not 
mix, at any rate not readily or frequently, and a really 
new variety is rarely found. Some valuable new kinds 
have been obtained by artificial crossing. 

Of late years, much attention has been paid to the in- 
troduction of dwarf varieties of peas, such as Tom Thumb, 
Little Gem, and the American Wonder. The advantages 
of the dwarf kinds are, that they do not need sticks, and 
two or three times as many rows can be sown on the land. 

If, however, the only object of bushing is to lift up the 
peas to a convenient hight for picking, we gain nothing 
in this respect by sowing the dwarf kinds. It is quite as 
tiresome to pick pods from dwarf peas as it is from un- 
bushed Early Kent, or Champion of England. Dwarf 
peas should not be sown in rows less than fifteen inches 
apart. The land should be rich, and kept well hoed and 
entirely free from weeds. Dwarf peas, if sown in close 
rows and the weeds allowed to grow, will not give satis- 
faction. Green peas, to be tender and sweet, must be 
grown rapidly, and for this they must have the richest of 
land, and the best of cultivation. It is quite an object 
to get a crop of peas late in the season, when the main 
crop is all gone. For this purpose, late varieties, such as 
Champion of England or Marrowfats are sown late in the 
spring. In three years out of four, however, these late 
sown, late varieties, are apt to mildew. The better way 



PEPPEE — CAPSICUM. 



97 



is to sow the early varieties in June or July. In the 
hands of a skillful and experienced gardener, peas are a 
very profitable crop. The price varies considerably, 
ranging from two dollars per bushel for the early, to fifty 
cents per bushel later in the season. The latter price is 
paid by the canning factories. It is a good plan to con- 
tract with a canning establishment to take all the 
peas after the price in market falls to seventy-five cents 
per bushel. Taking the whole crop together, the returns 
are quite satisfactory. It costs here fifteen cents per 
bushel to pick the peas. 

BrGGT PEAS. 

The principal insect enemy of the pea is the Weevil 
{Bruchus pisi). It is spreading very rapidly. Not long 
ago, peas grown in the northern latitudes and in Canada, 
were not injured by the Weevil. Now we get "buggy 
peas " from many places formerly free from this pest. 
There is nothing that we can do to 
check or destroy the Weevil after it 
is introduced. What we should all 
aim to do is, never to sow buggy 
peas. In time this would help us. 
Do not buy seed peas from any seeds- 
man unless he will warrant them 
entirely free from bugs. 

PEPPEE— CAPSICUM. 

Pepper, or Capsicum, is a tender 
plant. It does well in the Northern 
States after the plants are fairly 
started. Occasionally we can growFig.^m 
them by sowing the seed in the 
open ground, about the time we plant melons and 
cucumbers; but, as a rule, it is better to start the plants 
5 




PEPPER.— LARGE 
BELL OK BULL-NOSE. 



98 GAEDEISriNG FOE YOUNG AiSTD OLD. 

in a hot-bed, or in a box in the house. When the ground 
is thoroughly warm, and all danger of frosty nights is 
passed, set them out carefully in the warmest, lightest, 
and best soil you have. Plant in rows twenty-four to 
thirty inches apart, and from twelve to fifteen inches 
apart in the rows. Keep the ground clean and mellow 
by the frequent use of the cultivator and hoe. The best 
variety is the Bell, or Bull-nosed. It is extensively used 
for pickling and for seasoning. Cayenne pepper, a 
smaller-fruited variety, is cultivated in the same way. 



POTATOES. 

As a garden cr'^p, potatoes are seldom grown, except 
for the early market or for home use in summer. The 
later varieties are grown as a field crop. It often hap- 
pens, however, that the gardener can plant potatoes on 
land from which some early crop has been removed. A 
very good crop can be grown here when planted as late 
as from June 15th to July 4th; but for late plant- 
ing, it is best to use the early varieties. For an early 
crop, it will pay well to take considerable pains in pre- 
paring and manuring the soil. The land should be 
made ready the fall previous, and the moment the frost 
is out of the ground, plant the potatoes in rows twenty- 
four to thirty inches apart, and from ten to twelve inches 
apart in the row. If the land is very rich, and you in- 
tend to dig the potatoes as early as possible, thicker 
planting will give a larger crop, say rows eighteen inches 
apart, and the potatoes dropped eight inches apart in 
the row. 

I have been in the habit, every year, of planting pota- 
toes the first moment the land could be worked, and it 
has frequently happened that we had a very severe and 
long-continued frost afterwards, but the potatoes were 



PUMPKIN^S. 99 

never injured in the ground ; they always came up 
strong and healthy. Occasionally we have a frosty night 
in the spring which cuts down our early potatoes, but 
those who plant moderately early are nearly as liable to 
be caught as those who plant just as early as possible. 

Potatoes can be readily transplanted, and we frequently 
start a few hills in the hot-bed, and transplant them into 
the open ground when the tops are four or five inches 
high. By covering them with a hand-glass, or shading 
them for a few days with a muslin-covered box, these 
transplanted potatoes will give a very early crop. It 
need hardly be said that potatoes should be well culti- 
vated and kept entirely free from weeds. For the early 
crops especially, the land must be very rich, and kept scru- 
pulously clean and no bugs suffered to feed on the leaves. 

The varieties are too numerous to mention, and every 
year brings new candidates for popular favor. The best 
early varieties that have been generally tried, . are the 
Early Eose, and Early Vermont, which is so much like the 
Early Eose that it is difficult to tell them apart. The 
Beauty of Hebron is one of the newer varieties, early, pro- 
ductive; it is of good quality, and promises to be very 
desirable. Gardeners should stick to the well-tried sorts, 
testing the newer varieties only on a small scale. 

PUMPKIKS. 

The common field pumpkin is usually grown as a sec- 
ondary or stolen crop among com. Careful farmers, 
however, who wish to cultivate their corn thoroughly, 
are getting out of the habit of planting pumpkins with 
the corn. They think it better to devote a piece of land 
entirely to the crop. A large yield can be produced in 
this way, and the pumpkins will be larger, sweeter, and 
better ripened. The better varieties of pumpkins can sel- 
dom be advantageously grown among corn. They should 



100 



GAKDENING FOE YOUKG AND OLD. 



be planted alone, and the rictier and the better the 
soil, and the more thoroughly it is worked previous 
to planting, the more profitable will be the crop. Plant 
in rows from eight to ten feet apart, and three to four 
feet apart in the rows, dropping eight or ten seeds in a 

hill. Afterward pull out 
all the "weak plants, and 
those injured by the 
Striped-bug or Squash- 
bug, leaving three or 
four good strong plants 
in a hill. Keep the 
land clean by the fre- 
quent use of the culti- 
vator and hoe as long as 
you can get between the 
rows of plants. The best 
variety for planting in 
the corn field is what is 
known as the Connecti- 




Fig. 17.— POSSTTM-NOSE PUMPKIN. 



cut Field Pumpkin. For growing on land entirely devoted 
to the crop, the best varieties are the Connecticut Field, 
the Large Cheese, and the New Jersey Sweet Pumpkin. 
The Possum-nose Pumpkin is a new variety, which I ob- 
tained from the Hon. Horace Ankenny, of Ohio. It is 
best grown on land entirely devoted to it, though in Ohio 
and farther South it is grown among corn. It is very 
productive, a rampant grower, of good size, and is of 
good quality, but its greatest merit is, that it will 
keep the year round. 

EADISHES. 



My own plan of raising radishes is, to prepare the land 
carefully in the fall, working in a good dressing of well- 
rotted manure. A light sandy loam is the best, but any 



RADISHES. 



101 



soil that is dry, mellow and rich, will produce good rad- 
ishes in a favorable season. New soil, full of leaf -mould, 
is particularly suitable for the crop. 

Soil which has been well prepared in the fall we do not 
plow again in the spring. It is simply cultivated or gang- 
plowed, four or five inches deep, and repeatedly harrowed 
and rolled, until not a lump remains. We usually sow four 
hundred pounds of superphosphate of lime, broadcast, per 




"Fig. 18. — EARLY RADISHES. 

1. Scarlet Turnip. 2. Rose Olive-Shaped. 3. French Breakfast, i. Long White 

Naples. 5. Long Scarlet Short Top. 

acre. Set a line for the first row, and sow the seed in 
shallow drills, twenty-one inches apart, dropping about 
three seeds to each inch of row. As the radishes come 
up quickly, no weeding, and very little hoeing will be re- 
quired on clean, well-prepared land, but we riin the horse- 
hoe repeatedly between the rows, commencing as soon as 
they can be traced, and repeat the operation twice a week. 
This thorough cultivation favors rapid growth, and with 



102 GAKDEKING FOE YOUJfG AND OLD. 

the aid of superphosphate and rich soil, soon enahles the 
plant to get out of reach of the little Black-heetle. 

It is very important to get good seed, raised from 
selected plants, for it is indeed exceedingly rare to buy 
seed that does not produce from ten to thirty per cent of 
poor, worthless radishes. Not unfrequently the crop is 
so poor that one is forced to believe that the seed-grower 
had drawn out all the good radishes for market, and al- 
lowed all the poor ones to run up for seed. 

The method of raising radishes, above described, is not 
often practised by market gardeners. They think their 
land IS too valuable, and they aim to grow them as a sec- 
ondary crop. They sometimes sow the radish seed care- 
fully and evenly, broadcast, on the asparagus bed, and 
sometimes they sow the seed, broadcast, on land drilled 
in with beets, or between the rows of early cabbages, but 
in the ordinary farm -garden it is best to devote the en- 
tire land to the crop. Sow the radish seed in rows, cul- 
tivate thoroughly, and by the middle of June the crop 
will be marketed, and tiie land can be plowed and used 
for other crops, such as Swedes turuips, beets, cabbages, 
etc. The best varieties of radish for home use, are the 
liound Scarlet Turnip, New French Breakfast, and Eose 
Olive-shaped, The White Turnip radish is similar to 
the Red Turnip, except m color. For market the Long 
Scarlet Short Top is one of the best varieties. 

EAISIITG KADISH SEED. 

As a rule, nearly all our radish seed is imported from 
Europe. It is easily grown, and as large quantities of it 
are annually required, it would pay any young man won- 
derfully well to grow radish seed, and take special pains 
to grow it only from the most perfect roots. The seed 
should be sown in rows, from twenty-one to twenty-five 
inches apart. The ground should be rich and clean. 



RADISHES. 103 

Sow the best seed tbat can be obtained, early in the 
spring, dropping two or three seeds to each inch of row. 
Keep the ground thoroughly cultivated, and when the 
plants grow large enough to show their character, thin 
them, leaving only the handsomest and best roots. I know 
this is easier said than done, but it is well worth all the 
time and labor it will cost. It will be necessary to go 
over the piece several times, as it is necessary to pull out 
six or eight radishes for every one that is ultimately left. 
If we leave two or three plants for every foot of row they 
will b« quite thick enough. Nothing more is required, 
except to kill the weeds, until the crop of seed is ready 
to harvest. 

When the pods begin to wither, the crop can be cut 
with a sharp corn knife, or mown with a scythe, or better 
still, it may be cut with a self-raking reaper, which throws 
the stems into bundles from ten to fifteen feet apart. In 
our dry, hot climate, the bundles can be allowed to care on 
the ground, where they are left by the reaper, turning 
them occasionally to prevent their moulding underneath. 
When thoroughly dry, draw them into the barn and stow 
them away on a scaffold, where the air can circulate through 
them, and let them remain until winter, thrashing them 
with a flail or thrashing machine during frosty weather. 

A thrashing machine, which tears the pods to pieces, is 
better than a flail. The seed is easily cleaned with a fan- 
ning mill and the necessary sieves. The seed-grower 
should confine himself to two or three of the best varie- 
ties, and it is best for him to raise only one variety at a 
time. The seed retains its vitality for three years or 
more, and it is better to raise three acres of one variety 
every third year than to raise one acre each of three va- 
rieties every year. He will have just as much land in 
radish seed every 3'ear, but he can manage the three acreis 
of one variety m one piece, with far less labor than he 
can raise an acre of each variety m three separate fields. 



104 



GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



WINTEK KADISHES. 



Winter radishes are attracting considerable attention 
of late. They are best sown in rows, twenty-one inches 
apart, and cultivated with a horse-hoe. They are sown 
from the middle of July to the first of September. Drop 
the seed in the drill, three or four to each inch, and if 
the weather is very dry, and the ground not in the very 




Fig. 19. — ^WTNTER KABISHES. 

6. Mannnotli White Winter. 7. Chinese White Winter. 8. Black Spanish Turnip. 

9. Chinese Eose Winter. 

best condition, I would sow five or six seeds to each inch 
in hopes of securing a stand and escaping the ravages of 
the Black-beetle. Cultivate as soon as the rows can be 
distinguished, and hoe if necessary; when the plants be- 
gin to crowd each other, thin out, so as to ultimately leave 
them from three to four inches apart. The roots are pre- 
served for winter use in barrels or boxes of sand m the 
cellar, or they can be pitted in the garden, taking the 



KHUBAEB. 105 

precaution to scatter among them not less than a bushel 
of sand or dry earth to each two or three bushels of rad- 
ishes. Cover with nine inches of straw and about six 
inches of soil, and just before winter sets in, put on an- 
other layer of straw and cover with six inches more of 
soil, or enough to completely hide and cover all the 
straw. 

The leading varieties of winter radishes are the Chi- 
nese White, the Chinese Rose, California Mammoth White, 
and the Black Spanish. The latter is a very hardy va- 
riety, somewhat harsh to ordinary tastes, but seems to be 
highly relished by those who like it. The California Mam- 
moth White is a larger and somewhat milder variety, and 
would suit ordinary tastes better than the Black Spanish. 
The seed is grown by setting out some of the best selected 
roots in the spring, in rows two feet apart, and six inches 
distant in the row; harvest and thrash the same as direct- 
ed for summer radish. 



EHUBAEB. 

When raised from seed, Ehubarb is sown as early in 
the spring as the ground can be properly worked. Pre- 
pare the soil as directed for raising celery plants. Any 
one who can raise these well, can raise good rhubarb 
plants. If convenient, the seed may be sown in a box in 
the house, or in a moderately warm hot-bed, and the 
plants set out in rows twenty-one inches apart, and two 
to three inches apart in the row, as soon as the weather 
and soil will permit. The land can not be too rich, and 
if it is not intended to use the horse-hoe between the 
rows, they may be from twelve to fifteen inches apart, 
and kept clean by the frequent use of the hoe. When 
sown in the open ground, the plants need not be trans- 
planted, but should be thinned out to three inches apart 



106 GAEDENING FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 

in the row. As in raising celery plants out of doors, it 
is impossible to make the land too rich. I have worked 
in well-rotted manure at the rate of one hundred two- 
horse loads per acre, and it pays to do so. Few people 
understand how much manure land will hold. An acre 
of soil, ten inches deep, weighs about two million pounds; 
if you work in one hundred tons of manure per acre, 
there will be only one pound of manure to ten pounds of 
soil; and you can put one hundred loads of manure on an 
acre and work it so thoroughly that one could not tell, 
without careful examination, that the land had been ma- 
nured at all. That is the way to prepare land for raising 
celery and rhubarb plants. On such land, if sown as 
early as possible in the spring, and the plants carefully 
hoed and kept entirely free from weeds, the plants will 
be large enough to set out in their permanent bed the fol- 
lowing spring. 

Ehubarb is more generally propagated by a division 
of the roots, than from the seeds. When propagated 
from the roots, divide up the old root so as to leave one 
bud or crown on each piece. The roots can be set out 
in the permanent bed either in autumn or early in spring; 
the fall perhaps is the preferable time, especially in the 
Southern States. If the permanent bed is made from 
plants raised from seed, the spring is the better time. 
Whether made from roots or seedling plants, the perma- 
nent bed cannot be made too rich. A hundred loads of 
manure per acre, is none too much, and the soil should 
be thoroughly worked to a depth not less than ten inches. 
Set out the roots or plants in rows four feet apart each 
way; this will require two thousand seven hundred and 
twenty-one per acre. Make the rows straight, and set 
out the roots so that the crown is two or three inches be- 
low the surface. The first year no stalks should be 
pulled, keeping the ground thoroughly cultivated and 
free from weeds. A row of radishes might be sown between 



SALSIFY. 107 

the rows of rhubarb, or cabbage plants, or lettuce set there, 
but it is better to let the rhubarb have the whole ground 
the first year and certainly afterwards. Some varieties of 
rhubarb have a disposition to throw up numerous seed 
stalks; these should be cut off as they appear, as they ab- 
sorb much of the sap which should be used for the 
rapid growth of the edible stalks. The varieties of rhu- 
barb generally grown in this country, are Linnaeus, 
which is of good size, good quality, and early, the 
Victoria, which is larger and later, and of excellent qual- 
ity. The Gaboon's Seedling is a late and very large va- 
riety, which was extensively sold some years ago, under 
the deceptive name of "Wine Plant." 



SALSIFY. 

Salsify, often called Vegetable Oyster, is rarely grown 
to perfection. When well grown and properly cooked, 
it is a healthful and delicious vegetable, and deserves to be 
much more generally and extensively cultivated. The cul- 
tivation of salsify is precisely the same as for parsnips. It 
is important to get good seed grown from carefully selected 
roots. The seed can be sown as early in the spring as the 
ground is in good working condition, and I have sown it as 
late as the first week in June with excellent results. As a 
rule, however, it is desirable to sow it early. The land 
should be prepared in the autumn, and it can not be 
made too deep, or too rich, and mellow. It will do well 
on a great variety of soils. I have had a fine crop on a 
well worked, heavily manured clay, but as a rule it is 
better to sow it on a sandy loam, heavily manured the 
fall previous or early in the spring. I sow in rows, 
twenty inches apart. The seed is long and slim, and few 
drills will sow it evenly without wasting the seed, and as 
that is quite expensive, it is better to sow it by hand, 



108 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

dropping about two seeds to an inch, of row, and covering 
half an inch deep; if the weather is dry, and the soil very- 
light, it may be covered an inch or an inch and a half, 
and in dry weather it is desirable to roll the soil after 
sowing. As soon as the plants appear, hoe lightly on 
each side of the row, and a few days later, run the horse- 
hoe or cultivator between the rows; suffer not a weed to 
grow, and ultimately thin out the plants, leaving them 
from four to six inches apart. As usually grown, the 
roots are quite small, because the plants are left too thick 
in the row. Grown as I have recommended, the crop 
requires considerable land, but the roots will be so large 
and fine, as to command an extra price, and much more 
than pay the extra cost of the land. Salsify is a good 
crop for the field-garden, where land is comparatively 
cheap. The roots bring the highest price in spring. 
Like parsnips, salsify can be left in the ground all winter; 
but at least a portion should be dug in the fall, and kept 
in pits or in the cellar, as recommended for parsnips. 
The seed can be grown as recommended for parsnips, 
though the roots may be left thicker in the row, as the 
stalks do not grow more than three feet high. It is well 
to have the rows forty-two inches apart for convenience 
in gathering. The seeds do not all mature at the same 
time, and it is usual to go over the piece two or three 
times and cut off the heads of seed as soon as they turn 
brown. There is but one variety of salsify. "We must 
look to careful selection of roots to give us a good strain. 
There is an abundant opportunity for improvement in 
this direction, and I hope some of the boys will give us 
an improved salsify— not in name, but in reality. It can 
easily be done, by continued selection of the very best 
and handsomest roots for seed, rigorously rejecting all 
that are not perfect. 



SEA KALE. 109 

SEA KALE. 

Sea Kale is a most delicious yegetable, which sooner or 
later will certainly be extensively cultivated in this coun- 
try. It belongs to the same family as the cabbage. Its 
shoots only are eaten, and that only after being forced or 
blanched. It is a good deal of work to produce sea kale 
in perfection, but when properly grown, it is as tender as 
asparagus and as mild as cauliflower. Our climate is 
well adapted for its production in abundance, and of the 
choicest quality. When grown from seed, mark out the 
bed into rows three feet apart, then run a fifteen or 
eighteen-inch marker across the rows, and put a dozen 
seeds where the lines cross, and cover half an inch deep. 
When the plants appear, hoe, weed, and thin, leaving 
three or four plants in each hill. 

Sea Kale is a perennial plant, and when the bed is 
once made, it will last for many years. It is propagated 
from the roots as well as from seed, and where those can 
be obtained, a year's time can be saved. When propa- 
gated from the roots of old plants, it is usual to cut 
these into lengths of two or three inches. In early 
spring, place the pieces in a box in the house or in the 
hot-bed, covering them very lightly with damp moss or 
light mould. As soon as they start to grow, and the 
weather is suitable, set out in a bed eighteen by thirty- 
six inches apart. No crop will be produced the first 
year, but the second year a few shoots can be removed 
without weakening the plants; the third year they will 
produce a full crop. The plant needs protection during 
the winter. A good plan is, to cover the bed or plants 
with leaves or manure or leaf -mould ; this will protect the 
plants, and the shoots, as they push through this cover- 
ing, will be blanched and be ready for use. If the 
plants are very vigorous, a greater depth of covering or 
blanching material will be needed. 



110 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

SPINACH. 

Spinacli is an important crop in the garden, whether 
grown for home use or for market. It is of most vakie 
early in the spring, and for this purpose must be sown 
the autumn previous, on the richest and best land. You 
can not work the soil too thoroughly. The seed should 
be sown in rows from twelve to twenty-one inches apart, 
the latter distance if a horse-hoe is to be used in culti- 
vating it. In this section we sow about the first of Sep- 
tember, and as the ground is apt to be very dry, a good 
deal of work is sometimes required to break up all the 
clods and get the soil fine and mellow; but stick to it 
until the object is accomplished. By bestowing labor 
enough, you can get the soil into good condition. Do 
not wait for a rain to help you. Eain will not do much 
good on the hard, unbroken, or cloddy soil ; but break 
up the land, crush the lumps, pulverize the soil, and 
then even a slight shower will penetrate this fine soil, 
and make it moist enough to start the seed. Sow the 
seed pretty thick, say three seeds to each inch of row; 
this IS ten times as many as are necessary, but it is very 
desirable to have plants enough. Certainly it is very un- 
desirable and annoying to have any gaps in the row. As 
soon as the plants appear, hoe or cultivate between the 
rows — the more frequently, the better. When the plants 
are fairly started, thin Out, leaving them only four or 
five inches apart in the row. If desired, the plants may 
be thinned out with a sharp-pointed onion hoe from one 
to two inches apart. When large enough, half the re- 
maming plants may be cut out for use in the fall, or just 
before winter sets in, at which time, and during the 
winter, spinach often brings a high price. 

N. B. — As I said before, you can not make the land 
too rich for spinach. It is very desirable to work into 




SPINACH. Ill 

the surface soil twenty or thirty loads of manure per 
acre. I would work it into the soil not more than four 
inches deep; but recollect it must be worked in and com- 
pletely broken up, and so mixed with the soil that you 
would hardly know, except from the loose, mellow ap- 
pearance of the land, that any manure had been applied. 

Many fail in their first efforts to grow spinach in the 
autumn for use in spring. The reason is, they do not 
take sufficient pains in preparing and mellowing the 
land; they do not work in suffi^cient 
manure; they do not sow early 
enough; they do not sow seed 
enough; or, if the weather is dry, 
they do not roll the soil, or press 
it down hard enough after the seed 
is sown. In this section, just be- ^^^- ^o.-spinach. 
fore winter sets in, it is generally desirable to scatter 
a thin layer of straw or horse litter over the plants, 
say three inches thick, as a protection. It is not always 
necessary, but will do no harm, and in some seasons 
may prevent loss. 

For summer use, spinach is sown in rows a foot apart, 
early in the spring, and again every two weeks for a suc- 
cession. In warm weather it soon runs up to seed, and 
as we have, or may have, an abundance of other green 
vegetables, it is not worth while to sow spinach largely 
in the spring. Still, every garden should have a few 
rows or a small bed of it. There are two varieties com- 
monly cultivated, the Prickly-seeded or Winter, and the 
Eound-seeded or Summer. One is just as good as the 
other, either for spring or winter, and the Prickly or 
Winter variety should be dropped. The Eound or Sum- 
mer will stand the winter just as well as the Prickly, and 
some prefer it, thinking it is more easily sown with the 
drill. If sown as thickly as it ought to be sown, a good 
drill will sow either kind evenly and well. 



113 GAKDEJSriNG FOE TOUl^G AKD OLD. 

SQUi.SH.— SUMMEE. 

For summer use, nearly all the varieties of Squasli gen- 
erally cultivated are of the bush or dwarf kind. They 
take up far less room in the garden than the running 
varieties. The cultivation of the bush squash is exceed- 
ingly simple; it requires good, but not excessively rich, 
land, and the seed should not be sown until the soil is 
quite warm and all danger of frost is passed. 

In my own garden I drill in the Summer squash in 
rows three feet apart, dropping a seed to each two or 
three inches of row, and when the plants begin to crowd 
each other, I thin out the weakest, and leave the strongest 




Fi^. 21.— EAELT CEOOKNBCK. 

and those least riddled by the Striped-bug. One good 
plant to each eight or ten inches of row is thick enough. 
Generally, however, summer squashes are planted in hills 
three feet one way and two feet apart in the row. Put a 
dozen seeds in each hill, and ultimately leave only three 
of the strongest plants in the hill. Keep the ground well 
cultivated and hoed, pulling up a little fresh soil towards 
the plants to smother any small weeds that can not be 
reached with the hoe. A tablespoonful of superphos- 
phate, well mixed with the soil in each hill before plant- 
ing the seed, stimulates the growth of the vines, and, 
what is still more important, it favors the early maturity 
of the fruit. 

When grown extensively for market in the field-garden, 
prepare the land in the very best manner. A light, warm. 




SQUASH— WIKTEE. 113 

sandy soil is best, but the squash will do well on heavier 
soil, provided it is dry and thoroughly worked until it is 
fine and mellow. It is seldom that such soil is worked 
sufficiently. Comparatively few farmers have learned 
how important it is to reduce soil to the finest and mel- 
lowest tilth. In the field, I would 
mark off the rows forty-two inches 
apart, and drill in the seed. I 
think this is better than planting 
in hills, but would plant in hills 
if more convenient. All that 
needs to be done is, to keep the 
land thoroughly cultivated with pi^, 22. 

a . horse-hoe between the rows, eaklt bush scollop. 
and thin out the plants in the row as previously directed. 
The best varieties of summer squash are : the Early 
Bush Orooknecked and the Early Bush Scollop. 



SQUASH.— WINTEE. 

Winter squashes have running vines, and require richer 
land and more space than the bush varieties. They are 
an important crop in the field-garden. The market gar- 
deners on high-priced land, near large cities, can rarely 
afford to raise winter squashes largely. They should be 
grown on well-prepared farm land. The fruit has not to 
be marketed from day to day, like summer squashes, but, 
like cabbages, parsnips, carrots, and potatoes, can be sent 
in large quantities at once to near or distant markets. 

Many farmers who try to raise squashes fail to realize 
their expectations, simply because they do not prepare 
the land with sufficient care, or manure highly enough. 
If the land is not in the very best condition, the plants 
do not grow with the necessary vigor, and soon fall a 
prey to the remorseless Squash-bug. 



114 



GAKDENIiirG FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 



Light, sandy land is best for squashes, but it should be 
manured either directly for the crop or for the one pre- 
ceding it; in the latter ease, it is desirable to manure 
again in the hill, thoroughly mixing the manure with the 
soil where the hill is to be, for a space not less than two 
or three square feet. Two tablespoonfuls of superphos- 
phate to each hill, well mixed with the soil, in addition 
to the manure, will prove yery beneficial. Plant the 




Fig. 23.— HUBBAED. 



Fig. 24.— MAT?BTEHEA1>. 



squashes in rows ten feet apart, and four feet apart in the 
rows. Plant eight or ten seeds in each hill, and cover 
from one to two inches deep, according to the nature of 
the soil. If the weather is dry and the soil very light, 
cover from two to three inches deep, and make the soil all 
about the hill firm and smooth, with the back of the hoe. 
As soon as the plants begin to crack the soil, dust a little 
plaster over them, and in two or three days go over 



SQUASH — WINTEE. 115 

the piece again, early in the morning, while the dew is on, 
and dust on more plaster, doing the work carefully and 
thoroughly. The plaster is a good fertilizer for the 
vines and helps to keep off the bugs. 

All we have to do after this, is to fight the weeds and 
the bugs. Not a weed should be suffered to grow. Ex- 
amine the plants frequently and crush all the eggs you 
see on the leaves, and, as the plants begin to crowd each 
other, pinch off the weakest and those most injured by 
the bugs. If you can ultimately secure two good, strong, 
vigorous plants in each hill, and the land is thoroughly 
cultivated and free from weeds, you are almost certain of 
a large and profitable crop. 

The best varieties for late fall and winter use are the 
Marblehead and Hubbard. When well grown from true 
seed, both are so good that it is not easy to tell which is 
the better. The Marblehead is quite as large as the Hub- 
bard, the shell is a little harder and smoother; the flesh 
is a somewhat lighter colored, but equally dry, sweet, 
and fine flavored. The Hubbard is the more popular 
market variety. 

SAVING SQUASH SEED. 

No one should attempt to grow Squashes for seed un- 
less he can keep the variety completely isolated. Where 
this can be done, the business is quite profitable — or at 
any rate it would be, as soon as the seedsmen and squash- 
growers became cognizant of the fact that your seed 
can be depended on as true to name. The main point 
is, to secure stock seed. I mean by this, seed that has 
been carefully bred for several generations. A seedsman 
who has such seed will not sell it, he will keep it for the 
exclusive purpose of raising seed. 



116 GAEDEIsriJSrG FOR -XOUXG AKD OLD. 

SWEET POTATOES. 

Sweet Potatoes are essentially a southern crop, and 
their cultivation in the Southern States is an easy and 
simple matter. At the North, good crops can be grown, 
but it is necessary to raise the plants in a greenhouse or 
hot-bed. Market gardeners, who grow the plants for 
sale, as they do tomato plants, find the business quite 
profitable, as there is a yearly increasing demand for the 
plants, which are often sent long distances by express. 
The plants are easily grown in the hot-bed, the chief dif- 
ficulty being to preserve the potatoes intended for seed 
through the winter. They cannot be kept in a cool, 
damp cellar, like common potatoes. They should be 
kept in a dry room, where the thermometer never gets 
below forty degrees or above sixty. In this section we 
place the potatoes in the hot-bed, from the middle to 
the end of April — the cooler the bed the earlier we plant. 
Cut the roots lengthwise and place the cut side on the 
loose soil or sand in the hot-bed, and cover with sand or 
mould, two inches thick. As the shoots grow, more 
sand may be added, until it reaches the height of four or 
five inches above the potatoes. The shoots or young 
plants can be removed and set out in another hot-bed, as 
the potatoes will continue to throw up new shoots. In 
this way a large number of plants can be obtained from 
each. Of course, it is necessary to attend to ventilating 
and watering the hot-bed. The hotter the bed, and the 
brighter the sun, the more water will be needed. In no 
case must the bed be allowed to get dry. It is also neces- 
sary to guard against chilling the plants by saturating the 
bed with cold water. Sweet potato plants are set out in 
the open ground from the first of June to the first of 
July. A warm, sandy soil is best. It is not necessary to 
have the land excessively rich, or the quality of the po- 



TOMATOES. 317 

tatoes may be injured. It is very important, however, to 
make the ground as m3llo"w and loose as possible, and to 
keep the plants entirely free from weeds. Plant in rows 
forty-two inches apart and twenty-four inches apart in 
the row. Or plant in hills, three feet apart each way. 
A tablespoonful of superphosphate to each hill, mixed 
with the soil at the time the potato plants are set out, will 
favor the ripening of the crop, and improve the quality, 
The cultivation is similar to that required for the com- 
mon, or as the southerners call it, the "Irish" potato. 
In damp, growing weather, the vines lying on the ground 
throw out roots, and it is best to check this tendency by 
occasionally moving the vines. If you keep working 
about the vines as much as is desirable with the hoe to 
destroy weeds, and give the plants a little fresh soil, 
nothing more will usually be required. 

The variety generally cultivated at the North is the 
Nansemond. 



TOMATOES. 

For home use people generally depend on buying To- 
mato plants rather than to be at the trouble of raising 
them themselves. So far as this single crop is con- 
cerned, the plan is a good one, but there are plants 
which are all the better for being started in a hot- 
bed or in boxes in the house, and the more of these 
things you have to attend to, the less likely will you be 
to neglect them. I would, therefore, recommend all 
young gardeners to raise their own tomato plants. 
And all the more so because, should they fail, they 
can readily buy plants. If they succeed in raising the 
plants, all the better. If they fail, none the worse. 
You can raise far better plants than are generally to be 
found in the market. 



118 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

One box such as I have described, and which will fit 
into the window, will start all the tomato plants likely to 
be wanted for home use. Here we usually sow the seed 
the last of March or the first of April. "We sow them in 
rows about an inch apart, and put three or four seeds to 
an inch of row, cover a quarter of an inch deep with a 
a mixture of sand and sifted moss, or moss alone. Keep 
the soil moderately moist, but be careful not to get it 
too wet. If, at the time of sowing, you saturate the soil 
with warm water, as good a rule as any I can give in re- 
gard to the amount of water afterwards required, is never 
to let the surface soil get dry. If you keep the surface 
soil or moss on top of the seed so moist that it will ad- 
here together, that will be sufficient. Until the plants 
grow, very little water will be required, but that little 
should be given every day. It should be milk warm, or 
about as warm as your hand, and be sprinkled on with a 
fine rose. If any weeds appear, pull them out. And as 
soon as the plants begin to crowd, some of them should 
be removed into another box. As soon as the plants 
begin to crowd, transplant them again into a spent hot- 
bed or cold frame, covered with glass or muslin. There 
they can remain until the soil and weather will allow 
of their being set out in the garden. 

If you have pots it is a great advantage to set a to- 
mato plant in a three or four-inch pot and plunge the 
pots in the soil of a moderately warm hot-bed. If the 
plants get too large before the ground is ready for 
them in the garden, transfer them, soil and all, to a 
pot of larger size, and throw fresh soil into the pot to fill 
the space. Press the soil in firm, and put in enough to 
fill the pot, the roots will soon fill it, and you will 
have strong, healthy, stocky plants, each one of which is 
worth a dozen of the lank, crowded plants sometimes 
offered for sale. 

The preparation of the soil in the garden for tomato 



TOMATOES. 119 

plants needs careful attention. It does not need to be 
specially rich, but it must be made as fine and mellow as 
the most thorough working with the plow or spade and 
hoe and rake can secure. The soil should neyer be 
worked when wet. The dryer it is the lighter you can 
make it, and the lighter it is the warmer and better Avill 
it be for tomatoes. In setting out the tomato plants be 
yery careful to press this dry, light soil firmly round 
their roots. If the plants are in pots, transplanting is 
a safe and easy matter, though an important one. Be- 
fore transplanting saturate the soil in the pots with water, 
nearly milk warm. The best way to do this is to place 
the pots containing the tomatoes in a wash-tub or shallow 
box, containing water enough to nearly cover them. Let 
them remain in the water at least four or five minutes, 
then remove them and let them drain for an hour or so, 
or until you are ready to set them out. 

Plant in rows four feet apart, and not less than two 
feet apart in the rows. Set a line (and be sure you do 
not forget this), as crooked rows should never be toler- 
ated in the garden; make holes with a hoe where the plants 
are to be set, and if you work into the soil about a table- 
spoonful of superphosphate it will be very beneficial. 
Then, every thing being ready, place your two fingers on 
each side of the plant, reverse the pot so that the plant 
will hang down and strike the edge of the pot on any 
hard substance which happens to be handy, say the top 
of a spade, or the side of the wheelbarrow, or the top of 
the wooden pail containing the superphosphate. Set the 
plant, with the ball of moist earth, undisturbed, into 
the hole, so deep that the surface of the soil will be fully 
up to the first leaves of the plant, pull the soil to, and 
press it firmly around the roots of the plant with the 
hands, and the work is done. And if well done, you 
have every reason to expect a grand crop of tomatoes. 
Do not waste your time in watering the plants, it is un- 



120 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

necessary and useless; the moist soil "wliich was around 
the roots when taken out of the pot, will furnish all the 
moisture needed. In setting out tomato plants from a 
box or hot-bed, the soil should be prepared as before di- 
rected. The plants in the boxes or hot-bed should have 
the soil thoroughly saturated with warm water. I mean 
by that, you should put on as much water as the soil will 
hold. And recollect that soil will hold a great deal more 
water than most people would suppose. A good garden 
soil will hold from fifty to seventy-five per cent, of its 
weight of water. Such soil or mould as we use in the 
hot-bed, or for potting plants, will hold its own weight 
of water; in other words, if you have a pot containing 
two pounds of saturated mould, one pound of it will be 
water. I mention this to show that Avhen you undertake 
to water a sash full of tomato plants in the hot-bed be- 
fore transplanting them, it will take a good deal of water, 
and you will be very apt to get tired before you have put 
on all that the soil will hold. There is no danger of put- 
ting on too much, for after the earth is saturated it will 
hold no more, but the excess will soak into the manure 
below. The better way is, to do the work of watering 
the night before you intend to set out the plants. While 
the plants are growing, water should always be applied 
through a rose, but now that you intend to remove them 
from the hot-bed, this is not necessary; it will facilitate 
the work if you will take a small garden fork and break 
up the soil between the rows of plants; you can then take 
off the rose from the watering pot, and pour on the water 
a? fast as the soil will absorb it. Next morning break up 
the soil again with the fork, and take up each plant by 
putting your fingers on both sides of it and squeezing a 
ball of the loose, wet soil, around the roots. On no ac- 
count pull up the plants, as this will break off many of 
the fine roots. Set out the plants, with this ball of moist 
earth around the roots, down to the first leaves, and 



TOMATOES. 



121 



press the soil firmly around the ball of moist earth. It 
ought not to be necessary to water the plants after set- 
ting out, but if the sun is very hot, a piece of newspaper. 



• en? 



fo to 
at 

a 






e2 a 










a foot or eighteen inches square, may be placed over each 
plant; this will shade them and clieck the evaporation of 
water from the leaves. The plants will in any case be 
apt to wilt a little, but this will not hurt them. 
6 



122 GAEDENING FOR YOUiirG AND OLD. 

The after-cultivation of tomatoes is usually of the 
simplest kind. I say usually, because sometimes, in the 
garden, tomatoes are trained to a trellis two and one- 
half or three feet high. By a little judicious training 
and pruning, they are quite ornamental, and produce 
very fine fruit. But in our dry climate, tomatoes are 
seldom injured by allowing the vines to trail on the 
ground; and after setting out the plants, all that the 
tomato-grower need do is to keep the ground well stir- 
red up and clean, by the frequent use of the cultivator 
and hoe. 

Tomatoes are now largely grown for the canning estab- 
lishments. The profit of the crop, however, depends 
on our ability to get early fruit and market it for con- 
sumption, while it brings the highest price. Early in 
the season you can generally get a dollar a basket for 
the first tomatoes, while, as the season advances and the 
crop becomes more abundant, the price falls to sixty, fifty, 
or forty cents per bushel, and sometimes in September, 
they are sold for ten cents per basket. A basket of to- 
matoes weighs about thirty pounds, or sixty-six baskets to 
the ton. The canning establishments pay from eight to 
fifteen dollars per ton, or at the rate of from twelve and 
one-half to twenty-three cents per basket. If the whole 
crop was sold to the canning establishments, the profit 
would be very moderate; but taken in connection with the 
high price obtained for the early fruit, twenty cents per 
basket does very well, and is more profitable than ordi- 
nary farm crops. But in this, as in all other crops, a 
great deal depends on securing a large yield per acre. 
This depends on the length of the season and the power 
of the sun to ripen the fruit. If the land is rich and 
is kept well cultivated, and entirely free from weeds, a 
hot, dry season is favorable. Sixteen tons per acre, or 
one thousand baskets may be considered a maximum crop. 

The best varieties for the general crop, are Hathaway's 



TOMATOES. 123 

Excelsior, Acme, Trophy, and General Grant. The 
earliest variety is the Hubbard Curled Leaf, but it should 
be planted only to a limited extent, as it is small and not 
of the best quality. It is only good until we can get 
something better. In the cool summer of 1882, when 
many of the later varieties failed to ripen, we had an 
excellent crop from Hubbard Curled Leaf. I never 
knew it do so well or produce such an abundant crop of 
fine fruit before. The Early Smooth Eed is still a favor- 
ite in many sections. Persian Yellow is a large tomato 
of a creamy yellow color. The Eed Cherry is a small 
variety grown for pickling and preserving. 

TOMATOES FOR SEED. , 

It is not an easy matter to get really good, well-bred 
tomato seed, and I would advise some of my young friends 
to make a speciality of growing it. The entire crop 
should be devoted to the one object of growing the 
choicest and best seed, and that only. It will not do to 
market or eat the earliest and best fruit, and then save 
the seed from what is left. Every plant that does not 
prove true to kind, should be remorselessly and promptly 
pulled up and thrown away; by continuing this careful 
selection for a few years, such a tomato-grower would 
find a good demand for all the seed he could produce 
at remunerative prices. At first it might not pay him, 
as he might have to sell the seed for the same price as 
common seed. Tomato seed retains its vitality six or 
seven years, and it would be well for the seed-grower to 
save the seed of only one variety each year. 

To extract the seed, mash the tomatoes, throw them 
into a barrel with water, and allow them to ferment; the 
seed will fall to the bottom, and the scum rise to the top, 
when it can be skimmed off. I generally throw the skim- 
mings into another barrel and allow them to ferment 



124 GAEDEKIW} FOE YOUKG AND OLD. 

twenty-four or forty-eight hours longer; the seed can be 
allowed to remain in the fermenting barrel for several days 
■without injury to its germinating powers, but it does not 
look quite so bright as that first taken from the barrel 
after it has been allowed to ferment thirty-six or forty- 
eight hours. It is convenient to have plenty of barrels 
and an abundance of water. A little knowledge of chem- 
istry, with some experience, will greatly facilitate the 
labor of washing out and drying the seed. It will fa- 
cilitate the drying process if you press out as much 
water as possible, either by squeezing the seeds be- 
tween the hands or putting them in a bag under a cheese 
press, before putting them on the stretchers to dry. The 
seed must be thoroughly dried before being bagged and 
stowed away. 

TURNIPS. 

The cultivation of Turnips merely for home use, as a 
table vegetable, will not require much thought or labor. 
But when grown extensively either as a farm crop for 
stock, or as a farm-garden crop for market, it will be 
necessary to bestow considerable attention upon them. It 
is often thought that our climate is not well adapted to 
the growth of turnips. I am satisfied that this is a mis- 
take. We can grow just as good turnips here, and as 
large a crop per acre, as in any other country. The rea- 
son probably why the English and Scotch farmers raise 
turnips so extensively, is not that they can grow them so 
much better or more easily than we can, but because 
their winters are so much milder, that the roots can be 
largely eaten off by sheep during the autumn, winter 
and spring months on the land where they grow. If an 
English farmer could sell his turnips at any thing like 
the price the crop will bring in this country, no other 
farm crop would be half so profitable. But, as I said be- 



TUENIPS. 125 

fore, this is not because the climate is any better than 
our own for the production of the crop, but because long 
experience has enabled British farmers to use the very 
best methods in its cultivation. I have* known an Eng- 
lish farmer to spend fifty dollars an acre in preparing 
his land for turnips. It should be understood that tur- 
nips can not be grown with the preparation of the land 
necessary for corn and potatoes. 

Turnip seed is small, and it is useless to sow it among 
clods and expect it to germinate. The land for turnips 
must be in the very best possible condition. If it is neces- 
sary to plow it twice, plow it twice; if three times are neces- 
sary, then plow it three times. Either abandon the idea 
of raising the crop, or work the land and keep working 
it, until not a clod or hard spot remains. Superphosphate 
of lime is confessedly the best of all artificial fertilizers 
for turnips; and now that it is so easily obtained, and at 
such a reasonable price, there is no reason why turnips 
should not be more extensively grown. In the market 
turnips usually bring very liberal prices, and the crop has 
this advantage, if it can not be sold in market, it can be 
fed out on the farm. Horses are very fond of ruta-ba- 
gas, or sweet turnips. I do not say that they are a bet- 
ter or cheaper food for them in this country than corn or 
oats, but after your horse has had the usual allowance of 
oats or corn, he will not be sorry when the price of ruta- 
bagas falls so low in market that you will not begrudge 
him three or four good-sized roots every day. 

Euta-bagas or Swedes usually pay better than the early 
white-fleshed varieties. But I should perhaps here say 
that turnips may be divided into three classes. One class 
is well represented by the common Strap-leaf variety; it is 
sown late in the summer, and grows with the greatest 
rapidity; but it is not a good keeper, which is true 
of all of this class. These are grown very extensively 
in England to be eaten on the land by sheep in October 



126 



GARDENIlSrG FOE TOUIsrG AND OLD. 



and November; they grow quickly, but contain compara- 
tively little nutriment. I have known a large crop that 
grew very rapidly to contain ninety-five per cent, of 
water; in other words, one ton of the turnips contained 
only one hundred pounds of real food. An animal eat- 
ing such turnips, has therefore to take in nineteen 
pounds of water to get one pound of real food; no wonder 
such turnips can grow rapidly, and no wonder they will 
not keep long. 

The second class, of which the Yellow Aberdeen and 
Yellowstone are good examples, requires to be sown 
earlier. They will grow larger and keep later than those 
of the first class. 

Class third includes all the varieties known as Swede 
turnips, or Ruta-bagas, they are essentially winter varie- 
ties. They must be sown earli- 
er than the other classes, and 
require richer land; they are 
far more nutritious than the 
others, and will keep late into 
the following spring. I wish 
this matter to be understood. 
People often ask for the best 
variety of turnips; they might 
just as well ask for the best 
variety of apples. If you ask 
which is the best summer ap- 
ple, the best early or late au- 
tumn apple, or which is the 
best winter apple, an experienced fruit-grower might be 
able to answer the question. And so it is with turnips, 
we have early and late autumn kinds, and winter or 
early spring kinds; the latter class being Euta-bagas or 
Swede turnips. 

The cultivation of such varieties as the Strap-leaf is 
often no cultivation at all. The seed is scattered on any 




Fig. 26. 

IMPEBIAL PUBPLE TOP SWEDE. 



TTJRiriPS. 137 

vacant spot, from the middle of July to the first of Sep- 
tember, and we trust to chance for a crop. One year in five 
we get a good crop; one year in three we get a fair crop, 
on perhaps one-fourth of the land^ while on three-fourths 
of the field the turnips are not worth gathering. I do 
not say that it does not pay to sow turnips in this way; 
very little labor is required, the land would otherwise lie 
idle, and one pound of seed is amply sufficient to sow an 
acre; in fact, if you can distribute it evenly, half a pound 
is enough. It is quite a knack to sow turnip seed broad- 
cast; all the seed required is what you can hold between 
your thumb and the first two fingers; scatter the seed 
over a width of about ten feet, then take two steps for- 
ward and throw another similar pinch; throw it boldly, 
and keep your hand all the time on a level with your 
shoulder; most people let their hand fall as low as the 
hip, but the other is far the better way; it insures a 
much more even distribution of the seed. But I do not 
want my young friends to be sowing turnips broadcast. 
As a rule, what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 
And now that we have the best of implements to prepare 
the land, good drills to sow the seed, and good hoes 
to thin out the plants, I am very confident that, taking 
one year with another, it is far more profitable to drill in 
turnip seed, and cultivate between the rows with a horse- 
hoe than it is to sow broadcast. It is not merely that 
you get two or three, or four times as many bushels of 
turnips per acre, but you are almost certain of a crop, 
even in the most unfavorable season. When a good crop 
is obtained from sowing broadcast, and leaving the plants 
to take care of themselves, the market will be glutted 
with turnips, and the price will be low; but in an ordi- 
nary season, when you will not get more than half a crop 
from the broadcast sowing, on half the land, turnips 
will command a good price, and the farmer or gardener 
who has a good crop, gets ample compensation for his 



138 GAEDENING FOR YOUNG AlfD OLD. 

enterprise and labor; while the very next year, the sea- 
son may be so unfavorp.ble that the broadcast turnips are 
almost a universal failure, and the good cultivator who 
has a good crop, can sell turnips enough from an acre of 
land to buy him a horse and buggy. Let us then aban- 
don the idea of sowing turnips broadcast, except in rare 
cases. 

CULTIVATIO]S" OF EUTA-BAGAS. 

Ruta-bagas, or Swede Turnips — or as it would be better 
to call them, Winter Turnips, should be sown about corn- 
planting time, or from that until about the time we usu- 
ally plant beans. I have myself had a good crop sown as 
late as July 4th, but from the last of May to the middle 
of June is the better time in this section. 

Land that will raise good corn will produce good tur- 
nips, but ruta-bagas do better on a somewhat stiff loam 
than on a light sandy one; they will do very well on 
sandy soil provided you make it rich enough. On the 
stiff soils, it is better to prepare the land the autumn pre- 
vious. If the land has been in corn or potatoes, plow 
it as soon as the crop is removed; the earlier the better; 
harrow, roll, and pick up and draw off all stones large 
enough to interfere with a cultivator. If the land is at 
all weedy, plow or cultivate, and harrow and roll during 
dry weather in autumn, until all the weeds are killed. 
If the work has been well done, this thorough cultiva- 
tio» will start into growth millions of weed seeds. Be- 
fore cold weather sets in, plow the land again, and leave 
it rough for the winter. The frost will break up the 
stiff lumps of clay, and the next spring they will readily 
crumble to pieces, and produce the very best soil for ru- 
ta-bagas. Do not plow the land in the spring until it 
is quite dry; the surface may bake, but when you come 
to plow it, you will find that the soil underneath Avill turn 
up fine, mellow, and moist. 



TUEKIPS. 129 

If barn-yard manure is to be used, there are two 
methods of applying it ; one plan is to spread it broad- 
cast all over the land, and another, to make ridges or 
furrows, thirty inches apart and put the manure in 
these furrows, carefully knocking it to pieces with the 
fork or hoe. CoYcr up the manure by splitting the ridges 
with the plow. A double mould-board plow does the work 
twice as fast as a common plow, and in skillful hands 
does it far better. The turnip seed is then drilled in on 
these ridges, immediately above the manure. To do the 
work expeditiously and well, not only a good double mould- 
board plow is required, but a turnip drill with a roller 
before and behind the coulter which deposits the seed. 

Without these implements and more or less skill in 
their use, a young turnip-grower had better apply his 
manure broadcast, and after the land is thoroughly pre- 
pared, drill in the seed on tbe flat surface. He need 
not regret the necessity for adopting this method, for it 
is not without some advantages over, the other. In ridging 
and applying the manure between the ridges, you must 
make the furrows wide enough apart to allow the wheels 
of the wagon or cart to go in them. 

I7i other words you will have to make the ridges about 
thirty inches apart, which is wider than it is necessary 
to drill in the turnips. I find no difficulty, with a steady 
horse, of running a cultivator between rows of turnips 
or beets twenty-one inches apart, and if your land is rich 
enough, you can grow a far larger crop in these close 
rows than you can in wide ones. I think, however, it 
will usually be better to have the rows two feet apart, and 
to thin the turnips to ten or twelve inches in the rows. 

If the rows are two feet apart, and the plants one 
foot in the row, we have twenty-one thousand seven 
hundred and eighty plants on an acre. If the rows are 
thirty inches apart, and the plants a foot apart in the 
rows, we have seventeen thousand four hundred and 



130 GARDE]S"IHG FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

twenty-four plants on an acre. If the turnips average 
four pounds each, the one crop on the ridges would giye 
us less than thirty-five tons per acre, while the crop on 
the flat, in the narrow rows, would give us over forty- 
three tons per acre, or reckoning the turnips at sixty 
pounds per bushel, the crop on the narrow rows would 
give us one thousand four hundred and fifty-two bushels 
to the acre, while in the wider rows the crop would be 
less than one thousand one hundred and ninety-two 
bushels to the acre. 

I am free to admit, that either crop would be a remark- 
ably good one, but I am advocating good cultivation and 
the liberal use of fertilizers. During the winter of 1881 
— '83, it would have been a very easy matter to have dis- 
posed of thousands of bushels of ruta-bagas at fifty cents 
a bushel, and even one thousand bushels per acre would 
have afforded a magnificent profit. 

But before you can make a profit of five hundred dol- 
lars an acre from a crop of turnips, you have something 
to do. I speak of these prospective and possible profits 
as an incentive to faith, hope, and labor. I want you to 
have faith in good farming, and not be afraid to put 
work and manure into the land. There are some draw- 
backs and difficulties and many seeming discouragements; 
there are drouths. Black-beetles, Turnip-lice and mildew, 
but if there were none of these, turnips would never 
bring fifty cents a bushel. The best remedies for all of 
these is, the thorough preparation of the land, liberal 
manuring and frequent cultivation between the rows 
of plants, and careful thinning out and hoeing in the 
rows. 

If flat cultivation is adopted and the land is prepared 
in the autumn, as previously recommended, the manure 
may be spread on the land in the spring before plowing ; 
though I think it is better to plow the land first. My 
own plan is, to draw the manure to the field during the 



TURNIPS. 131 

winter and put it in large square heaps, about five feet 
high ; in the spring, if necessary, turn over the heaps to 
facilitate decomposition. 

When the manure is in heaps in the field, it; is an easy 
matter to draw it about the lot, even if the land has been 
plowed ; pat it in rows about five yards apart, and make 
the heaps at about the same distance in rows. This would 
"give one hundred and ninety-three heaps on an acre, and 
if you put three bushels of manure in each heap, and each 
bushel weighs seventy-five pounds, you would put on a little 
over twenty tons to the acre. If the manure is good, and 
you apply three or four hundred pounds of superphos- 
phate per acre in addition, this amount will be amply 
sufiicient to produce a grand crop of turnips. 

Spread the manure evenly on the land, and then go 
over it with a smoothing harrow lengthwise, and cross- 
wise of the furrows two or three times, until the manure 
is thoroughly broken up and mixed with the soil. Not 
a single lump should remain visible. This is an impor- 
tant matter, and you should do the work very thoroughly. 
If you are inclined to shrink from the labor and expense, 
think of a thousand bushels of turnips to the acre, and 
what they are likely to be worth in market, and go over 
the land once more with a harrow. 

The next step depends on the nature of the soil. My 
own soil varies greatly. I have in the same field a black 
sand, with more or less muck in it, and a sandy knoll 
with a stiff, tenacious loam between. It is not necessary 
to plow the muck or the dry sand as much as the heavier 
soil. And yet, as a matter of fact, the light soil is always 
better plowed than the other, as the plow goes in deeper 
than it does on the clay. I find it better to plow 
the heavier soil by itself, even if it is necessary to turn 
round every few rods. When thoroaghly reduced by good 
and repeated plowing, the heavier soil gives the best crops, 
but if carelessly plowed, with a point good enough to go 



132 GAEDElSrUsTG FOE TOUKG AND OLD. 

in on the sand, but which skims over the dry, hard clayey 
spots, we should be pretty certain to get no crop worth 
harvesting. As I cannot tell the kind of land on which 
you are going to sow the turnips, I cannot tell you Just 
how to work it ; it is one of the advantages of agriculture 
and horticulture, that each man musfc do his own think- 
ing. All I can say is this : for turnips, the land must be 
worked with a plow, the gang-plow, the cultivator, the 
harrow and the roller, until not a lump remains on the 
surface or within reach of the drill. 

Before the last harrowing and rolling, or earlier, sow 
on the superphosphate at the rate of three hundred pounds 
per acre; be careful to distribute it evenly, and if the su- 
perphosphate is not entirely free from lumps, run it 
through a sieve and break them up fine; go over the 
land once more with the smoothing harrow or roller; set 
a line — do not forget this — and drill in the seed, in 
rows two feet apart. The drill makes its own mark, but 
if you find the rows are getting crooked, set the line 
again, and in such a way that in no point it shall be less 
than two feet from the last drill mark. If the soil is 
moist, the shallower you can sow the seed the better, pro- 
vided it is covered at all; but if the surface-soil is dry, 
you may set the drill to deposit the seed half an inch 
deep, or until it will reach the moist soil below. I would 
sow at least two seeds to each inch of row, and if the soil 
is dry, with little prospect of rain, I would sow three or 
four seeds to each inch of row, or two pounds to the acre. 
If the soil and weather are moist, and every thing is fa- 
vorable, one pound is sufficient; but in average condi- 
tions two pounds per acre is the rule. It is better to sow 
three, four, .or even five pounds per acre, than to run 
any risk of losing your crop by the swarms of black bee- 
tles which frequently attack the young plants. After 
the turnip plants get into the rough leaf, the beetles do 
them comparatively little harm. As soon, therefore, as the 



TUE]*riPS. 183 

plants get into the rough leaf, commence to hoe and thin 
them out. Hoeing turnips and thinning them out, are 
both done at the same time. You may think the remark 
unnecessary, but I have known people to hoe on each 
side of the row of turnips and afterwards go over the 
piece and thin them out. The true plan is, to cultivate 
the turnips between the rows with a horse-hoe, that will 
pull a little soil away from the row. If the rows are 
straight, a skillful boy will run his cultivator within an 
inch of the plants; when through cultivating, the young 
turnip plants will stand in straight rows two inches in 
width, invitingly ready for the hoe. 

Have the hoe ground sharp and bright, square at the 
corners, with the shank bent at nearly right angles with 
the handle; then dash your hoe boldly across the row of 
turnips, pulling it towards you; then push it back slowly 
in such a way as to leave only one plant in a place. The 
work can nearly all be done with a hoe, but occasionally, 
when the plants interlock, it will be necessary to stoop down 
and remove all but one with the thumb and finger. For 
this reason, if the plants are very thick in the row, you 
must commence to single out as early as possible, and push 
forward the work with energy. It will not do to loiter 
or tell stories. If you do, the plants will assuredly get 
the start of you, and then you have a tough job on hand. 
If, in spite of all you can do, you find you can not get 
through the whole piece before the plants are likely to be 
injured by over crowding, the better way is, to go through 
the whole piece and bunch out the plants. By this I 
mean strike the hoe across the row, leaving bunches of 
plants ten or twelve inches apart, and afterwards go 
over them again and single them out. 

Turnips will stand rougher treatment than beets or 
mangels. If you cut too close to a beet plant, our hot 
sun will kill it; while a turnip in the same circumstances 
would revive during the next night. After the plants 



134 GARDENIiTG FOR YOUNG AKD OLD. 

are singled our for the first time, all that you have to do 
is, to keep the cultivator frequently running between the 
rows. As soon as any weeds appear among the turnips, 
that can not be reached by the cultivator, go over the 
piece again with the hoe, and cut out all the weeds, and 
at the same time single out any plants that may have 
been left double, and this is all that will be necessary un- 
til the crop is ready to harvest. 



GATHERING THE CROP. 

Ruta-bagas, or Winter Turnips, will stand quite a 
sharp frost without injury, especially if at the time the 
frost occurs, the roots are surmounted by an abundance 
of green vigorous leaves. As long, therefore, as the 
leaves of the turnips keep green, there is no particular 
necessity for pulling up the crop; as the great difficulty 
in keeping turnips in large piles or pits, during the win- 
ter, is their tendency to heat — the colder the weather, 
provided the roots are not actually frozen when the crop 
is gathered, the better will the roots keep. If the crop 
is in by Thanksgiving Day, it will be early enough three 
seasons out of four. My own plan is, to pit the roots in 
the field as we do potatoes and mangels. We plow out a 
wide, deep, dead-furrow. We mark out the spot where 
the pit is to be, of any desired length, and then measure 
off six or eight feet on each side, and start the plow, 
plowing up and down on both sides, until the center, or 
dead-furrow is reached; then commence on the outside 
again, and plow up and down as before. This will make 
a still deeper and wider dead-furrow; then commence on 
the outside again, and plow up and down again as before, 
plowing deeper as you approach the center. These three 
plowings will give a mass of deep, mellow earth, which 
will afterwards be very convenient for covering the pit. 



TUENIPS. 135 

It will also bid defiance to the severest frost. If neces- 
sary, the bottom of this wide, deep, dead-furrow, may be 
cleaned out and made flat, level, and square with the 
spade or shovel; the pit is then ready for the roots. No 
straw is needed at the bottom or sides. The days are 
short, winter is approaching, and you must work lively 
and make a short job of it. 

My plan is, to set three teams with stone-boats to draw- 
ing the nntopped turnips to the pit; one man, with the 
team and stone-boat, takes two rows at a time, and as 
soon as he has put on all he can carry, he drives to the 
pit, where a couple of men help him to top the turnips 
and throw them into the pit. By the time this is done, 
another load is at the pit, and the empty stone-boat goes 
for another load, and by the time the second load is 
topped, the third team is at the pit with a load waiting 
to be topped. If all hands work sharp, a great lot of 
turnips can be gathered, topped, and pitted in a day. On 
my own farm, I generally find it best to have an extra 
man to help the drivers to pull and load the turnips; if 
both work well, this doubles the speed of the whole oper- 
ation. In other words, we have two men pulling turnips 
all the time, and two men ought to pull twice as many 
as one man. In fact, I have sometimes thought that two 
good sharp boys would pull more than twice as many 
turnips as one man who spends one-third of his time in 
stopping and starting the team. Two active boys, who 
work during these short days with a will, can pull up two 
rows of turnips and put them on the stone-boat almost as 
fast as a slow team will walk. If they cannot top the 
turnips fast enough at the pit, put on another man, or 
what is better still, take hold and help yourself. As a 
rule, however, the man or boy who has charge of the job, 
should not undertake any part of the work that will oc- 
cupy all his time; he had better undertake the general 
supervision, and be ready to lend a helping hand where 



136 GAEDENIisTG FOE TOUKG AND OLD. 

most needed. There is always plenty of work to be done 
at the pit. 

When the roots in the pit reach the level of the ground, 
it will be necessary to take a little more pains in placing 
them in it. And I would especially recommend you, 
if possible, to throw a quantity of dry sand or earth on 
the turnips in the pit. Those below the surface of the 
ground do not need it so much, but the turnips in the 
pit above the surface, and especially as they approach the 
top, will keep far better and fresher, if dry earth or sand 
is freely scattered among them. A bushel of sand to 
each three or four bushels of turnips will be exceedingly 
beneficial. I do not mean that you should draw sand 
from a distance, but take that which has been plowed 
out of the pit, giving preference to that which is driest. 
Do not be afraid of using too much. The sand will not 
only keep the turnips fresher, but it is quite a conven- 
ience in enabling you to build up the sides of the pit 
straighter and narrower. A wide pit is objectionable; 
four feet wide at the surface of the ground, and gradually 
tapering up to the top, to the height of three and a half 
to four feet, is quite large enough. It is generally rec- 
ommended to place chimneys every four or five feet in 
the pit, for the purpose of carrying off the heat or steam. 
These chimneys can be made by placing a bunch of straw 
a foot deep among the turnips, and letting it project 
through the covering of earth on top. Drain tiles two 
or three inches in diameter are equally efEective. 

K the work is delayed until just before winter sets in, 
and the turnips are very cold when put in the pit, and 
above all, if plenty of dry sand has been mixed with the 
roots, and a liberal coat of straw, say six or eight inches 
thick, is placed on top of the roots from the surface to 
the apex, there is very little danger that the turnips will 
get too hot in the pit. As I have said before, this is the 
real difficulty in keeping turnips. It is a very easy mat- 



TUKKIPS. 137 

ter to keep out the frost. When the pit is finished, get 
a load of dry straw and cover the pit evenly all over, si:^ 
or eight inches thick, and at the same time commence to 
cover it with earth, working from the surface of the land 
upwards. If, in doing this, you find any part where the 
straw is too thin, add more straw. Just earth enough fco 
hide the straw should he put on. Make the surface of 
the soil smooth, so that it will readily shed rain, and the 
work is done for the present. 

Later, however, it may be necessary to give the pit an- 
other covering of straw and earth, and before it is left, 
plow around it half a dozen times, to the width of five or 
six feet on both sides of the pit, turning the furrows to- 
wards the pit. This is very important. You cannot plow 
too much or too deeply, as loose earth is an excellent non- 
conductor of heat, and the severest frost will do little 
more in any single night than crust over the surface of 
this repeatedly plowed land. When cold weather really 
sets in, plow around the heap again, two or three times; 
put on a thin layer of straw, say four or five inches 
thick, and cover with the loose soil thrown up by the 
plow. You will find that the plow, properly handled, will 
save more than half the labor, and what is better still, 
the work is likely to be more thoroughly done. 

This last covering should be delayed until cold weather 
sets in, and it is all the better if the first coat of earth 
on the pit is frozen solid. I have more than once put on 
this second covering during a severe storm, with the ther- 
mometer almost down to zero. I once had to work with 
every man and team on the farm to help until ten o'clock 
at night to cover my pits, so suddenly and savagely came 
on the storm. We had to keep the teams plowing rap- 
idly around the pits to furnish loose unfrozen soil. There 
was no let-up for many weeks. Had we not done this, 
the loss would have been very great; as it was, not a root 
or potato was injured. I do not advocate delaying the 



138 GAEDENIKG FOR YOUKG AND OLD. 

work quite so late as this, but if you get caught, do not 
hesitate to work during the storm. If you do the work 
well, you can go to sleep afterwards, with a conscious- 
ness that, no matter how the storm may rage, your root 
crops are entirely safe. 

The method of keeping turnips here recommended is 
generally adapted to keeping beets, mangels, carrots, 
parsnips, etc. 

FALL, OE EAELT WIKTER TURNIPS. 

As a rule, this intermediate class of turnips has at- 
tracted very little attention in this country. It would 
not at present be advisable to raise them largely. I 
should not raise them at all, unless I had land all ready 
for the crop the first or second week in July, when it 
was too late to be sure of getting a crop of ruta-bagas. 
In a case like this, such varieties as the Yellow Aberdeen 
can be sown from the middle of July to the first of Au- 
gust with great advantage; you can get a large crop to the 
acre; far greater than you can of the Strap-leaf, Flat 
Dutch and other early varieties sown later. The Yellow 
Aberdeen will keep in excellent condition from Decem- 
ber to February, and be valuable for the table, when the 
early varieties have become pithy and tasteless. When 
better known, it will prove a profitable variety for the 
market garden, as it has always been for the stock feeder. 
The cultivation of the Yellow Aberdeen and similar va- 
rieties, does not differ essentially from that of the ruta- 
bagas; it does not need to be sown so early, and does not 
require so rich land. A soil in good mechanical condi- 
tion, that has been liberally manured for the previous 
crop, will, by the aid of a dressing of three hundred 
pounds per acre of superphosphate sown broadcast, pro- 
duce a fine crop without any other manure; but if the 
land has not been manured for the previous crop, it wiU 



TURNIPS. 139 

be better to give it a moderate dressing of manure, say 
eight tons per acre, and use the superphosphate in ad- 
dition. Superphosphate cannot be applied to any crop 
where it will do more good than to turnips. 

The Aberdeen is a hardy variety and will stand con- 
siderable frost, but it should be gathered before the ruta- 
bagas. In other words, you can let ruta-bagas remain 
later in the field than you can the Yellow Aberdeens ; 
they will not keep quite so well as the ruta-bagas, as 
they contain more water and are more liable to get heated 




Fig, 27. Fig. 38. 

PURPLE TOP STRAP-LEAF. WHITE PLAT DUTCH. 

in the pit. It is better therefore to make the pit smaller 
and to throw in more dry earth among the roots. 

CULTIVATION" OF AUTUMN TUENIPS. 

This class of turnips, of which the Purple Top Strap- 
leaf is a popular variety, is usually grown with little or 
no cultivation properly so called. In England, they are 
often called Stubble Turnips, because they can be grown 
after a crop of rye, wheat, or barley is harvested. 

We can do the same thing here, but our climate is so 
much hotter and dryer, that we shall have to take con- 
siderable pains to get land from which a grain crop has 
just been harvested, sufficiently moist and mellow to in- 
sure the grermination of turnip seed. There are times. 



140 GAEDEHIIifG FOE TOUISTG AND OLD. 

however, when it can be done, and done to great advan- 
tage. Land should be plowed immediately after harvest, 
and the roller should follow the plow. You cannot roll 
it too much while dry ; follow the roller a few days later 
with a smoothing harrow, weighted until it will cut 
through the dry clods, follow with a roller, so as to break 
up or crush the clods brought to the surface by the har- 
row, continue to roll and harrow, until you have secured 
a fine tilth. If the weather reporter would send us some 
rain, if nothing more than a thunder shower, we should 
at this time accept it as a favor ; this thoroughly worked, 
but dusty soil would drink it in, and we could immedi- 
ately start the drill, feeling confident that in two or three 
days the turnips would be up. 

Do not forget to sov/ superphosphate at the rate of 
from two hundred to three hundred pounds per acre. If 
the land is in good condition, and especially if it has been 
manured for the previous crop, the superphosphate is all 
that is necessary. It is better to sow the phosphate pre- 
vious to rolling and harrowing, but it is not well, I think, 
to plow it under. At this dry season of the year, it is 
well to roll the land after drilling in the seed and to roll 
it thoroughly. 

I would drill in the turnips in rows not less than two 
feet apart, and drop at least four seeds to each inch of row, 
or, say from three to four pounds per acre ; if the land 
is in good condition, this thick seeding is almost certain, 
with the aid of superphosphate, to enable the plants to 
escape the ravages of the beetle. 

The cultivation is similar to that previously recom- 
mended for ruta-bagas, except that we leave the plants 
a little thicker in the row — say seven inches apart. If 
the plants are properly singled out to this distance and 
the cultivator is used between the rows as often as is 
necessary, nothing more will be required until the crop 
is ready to be pulled. 



SWEET HEEBS. 141 

The sooner the crop is marketed, the better. At the 
price usually obtained for them, these turnips are quite 
profitable. It is not at all a difficult matter to grow 
from four hundred to five hundred bushels per acre. 

SWEET HERBS. 

Little need to be said in regard to the cultivation of 
Sweet Herbs. With the exception of Sage and Thyme, 
they are not very extensively grown for market. 

SAGE. 

Sage is grown more extensively for market than any 
other sweet herb. It is called Sage because, its use was 
supposed to strengthen the memory and make people 
sage, or wise. 

It is used extensively for seasoning or flavoring sausages, 
the stuffing of ducks, geese, etc., and occasionally for 
flavoring cheese. 

The plants can be propagated by cuttings, precisely as 
we propagate currants, but the usual and better way is, 
to grow it from seed. If you have good seed, it is an 
easy matter to raise the plants. For some reason, how- 
ever. Sage seed is often very poor and should be carefully 
tested before sowing. There is no difficulty whatever in 
growing good seed. 

If you wish only a few plants for your own use, sow a 
paper of seed in a box in the house, the middle of March, 
in rows two inches apart and two seeds to each inch of 
row. Transplant out of doors as soon as the weather is 
warm and settled. 

The seed, however, can be sown out of doors in the 
spring, as soon as the soil is in good condition. It is best 
to prepare the soil the fall previous. A light, warm, 
sandy soil in a sheltered spot, with a sunny exposure is 



142 QAKDEJTING FOE TOUKG AND OLD. 

best. Sow the seed in rows wide enough apart to admit 
the use of the hoe, putting in two seeds to each inch ; 
cover the seed a quarter of an inch deep, and if the soil 
is dry, pat it down with the back of the spade. As soon 
as the plants appear, hoe lightly between the rows and 
keep the bed free from weeds. This is all that need be 
done until the plants are ready to set out where they are 
to grow. 

The land for Sage should be dry, loose, and very rich. 
The plants are small and grow slowly at first. Before 
taking them out of the seed-bed, the soil should be 
deeply and carefully broken up with a fork, six or 
eight inches deep, and the bed thoroughly watered until 
all the soil to the depth of the sage roots is completely 
saturated. It requires a good deal of water, but if the 
work is well done, the young sage plants can be set out 
even in the hottest weather, and on comparatively dry 
soil, without the loss of a single plant. 

It is, however, very desirable to make the land very 
fine and moist, by thorough cultivation. It will usually 
be found better to plow the land just before setting out 
the plants, as this will bring to the surface the moist 
soil. After plowing, roll, harrow, and smooth off the 
surface. Mark off the rows (if the horse-hoe is to be 
used), twenty-one to twenty-four inches apart, and set 
out the plants ten inches apart in the row. 

Where land is valuable, and the crop is to be hand- 
hoed, the rows need not be more than twelve inches 
apart. In fact, the better way is, to mark off the land 
both ways twelve inches apart, and set the plants where 
the lines cross. If the weather is dry, you must be very 
careful to press the soil firmly about the roots. Set out 
the plants so that the lower leaves are just above the sur- 
face. As soon as the plants get over the effects of trans- 
planting, go through with a hoe to break the crust and 
kill the weeds; repeat the operation as often as necessary. 



SWEET HEEBS. 143 

As soon as the plants are in full flower, you can begin to 
cut and market the crop. Where the rows are only a foot 
apart, the best way is to cut out every other row. Tie 
tlie sage in bunches and market it, leaving the other 
rows to grow larger. If the land is rich, the plants 
which are left will continue to grow late into the fall, and 
completely cover the land. After cutting out every other 
row, run the cultivator between the remaining rows and 
hoe out the weeds. Where the plants are set out in rows, 
twenty-one inches to two feet apart, and the land kept 
clean and mellow by the frequent use of the horse-hoe, 
the total money return is not so great as that from the 
double crop, but it is far less labor, and in the field-gar- 
den will be the better plan. If the sage can not be sold 
green in the market, tie it up into bunches and let it dry; 
it can then be safely shipped to any distance. 

THTME. 

The cultivation of Thyme is similar to that of Sage. 
The seeds are smaller and the plants 
not quite so vigorous. The soil where 
the seed is sown should be made even 
richer and finer than for Sage, and 
the seed must not be covered more 
than an eighth of an inch deep, and 
the bed well patted with the back of 
the spade. In all other respects 
Thyme may be treated precisely as 
Sage. If preferred, the seed may be 
sown where the plants are intended 
to remain. Sow in rows twenty-one 
inches apart, and drill in the seed as ^^^- 29— thyme. 
shallow as possible, dropping three or four seeds to each 
inch of row. It will be necessary to mix the seed with 
three or four times its bulk of fine dry sand, or the drill 




144 GARDENING FOR yOUNG AND OLD. 

will SOW it too thick. Cultivate and hoe, and as the 
plants begin to crowd, thin them out. These young 
plants can be drawn out by the roots, and put in bunches 
for home use, or for market. This thinning out can be 
continued at different times until the plants are left from 
eight to ten inches apart in the row. 

In England, it is thought that thyme must be grown 
on the poorest of poor land, else it will lack the desired 
flavor. In our dry, hot climate, however, thyme will 
stand rich land and good cultivation. There are two 
kinds; one is what the European seed catalogues call 
"Hardy Winter," or "Evergreen." The leaves are 
lemon-scented, and by some it is preferred to the com- 
mon, or Broad-leaved kind. Both can be grown from 
seed, or propagated by division of the roots, but better 
plants are obtained from seed. The seeds are exceed- 
ingly small, and must be sown on the best prepared and 
finest land. They come up slowly, and it is desirable to 
sow them thickly. It will do no harm if you have to 
thin out fifty plants to one that is ultimately left. One 
pound of seed to the acre will be amply sufficient. 

Thyme is put up in bunches and marketed like sage, 
or it may be dried and shipped to any distance. Any 
one who has an evaporator for drying fruit, could easily 
devise a plan for drjdng bunches of sweet herbs, and 
make the business highly profitable. 

SUMMER SAVOET. 

There are two kinds of Savory; a Winter, or perennial, 
and the Summer, or annual sort; the latter is the best. 
The seed may be sown in March, in a box in the house, 
and the plants set out in the garden as soon as the 
weather will permit. This is not necessary, however, 
as the plants will do well if the seed is sown in any good 
garden soil early in the spring, or as soon as the ground 




SWEET HEEBS. 145 

and weather are warm. If it is intended to transplant 
the plants, sow the seed in rows, wide enough apart to 
admit the use of a narrow hoe, or, if the plants are to 
remain where the seed is sown, sow in rows fifteen inches 
apart, and thin out the plants enough to admit the use of 
a hoe. The seed should not be 
covered more than a quarter of an 
inch deep, and if the ground is 
moist, the shallower the better. 
Drop five or six seeds to the inch 
of row, as the thicker you sow, the 
easier it is to hoe between the 
rows of plants Just before they are 
cracking the ground, and to keep 
the bed free from weeds. Four 
pounds of seed will be amply suf- 
ficient for an acre. If grown by 
the acre, I would sow in rows, ^'^- 30.-summbk satoky. 
from twenty-one to twenty-four inches apart, and cul- 
tivate with a horse-hoe, and thin out the plants as recom- 
mended for thyme. 

SWEET MAEJORAM. 

The cultivation of Sweet Marjoram is precisely similar 
to that of Summer Savory, except, perhaps, that the 
plants do not bear transplantation so well, and conse- 
quently it is better to sow the seed where they are intend- 
ed to remain, in rows fifteen inches apart. Sow a plenty 
of seed, say four or five seeds to each inch of row, and 
ultimately thin out the plants to ten inches apart ; or, 
the rows may be sown twenty-one to twenty-four inches 
apart, and in this case, the plants may be left thicker in 
the row, or just wide enough apart to admit the use of 
a narrow hoe. If too thick, every second plant may be 
drawn out for early use. 
7 



146 



GAEDEKIlirG FOE YOUNG AKD OLD. 



BOEAGE. 



Borage is not extensively grown in this country, and 
there is little or no demand for 
it in market. The seeds are 
large and can be sown in the 
open ground in rows, fifteen 
inches apart, dropping one to 
each inch of row. 

Borage can be profitably grown 
for plowing under as a green 
crop. The leaves are so rich in 
nitrate of potash or saltpetre, 
that when dry they will burn 
like touch-paper. Borage is used 
only in the green state, and 




Fig. 31.— BOBAGE. 



principally for flavoring cooling beverages, like lemonade. 



EOSEMAEY. 



Eosemary should be sown in rows about fifteen inches 
apart each way. The better plan is, 
to drop five or six seeds in each hill, 
thinning out to a single plant before 
the plants begin to crowd each other. 
Cover the seed about a quarter of an 
inch deepo 

COEIANDEE. 

The young tender leaves of Coriander 
are used in salads and for flavoring 
soups. The plant is easily cultivated. 
The seeds are round and nearly as I'is- 33.-eosemart. 
large as a Sweet Pea. Sow in rows fifteen inches apart, 
dropping the seeds about an inch apart in the row, cover- 




SWEET HEKBS. 147 

ing half an inch deep. Light sandy soil is best for this 
crop ; thin out the plants for use before they begin to 
crowd each other, ultimately leaving them seven or eight 
inches apart in the row. The plants soon run up to 
seed, and it is best to sow at intervals of three or four 
weeks for succession. 

FE^S'IS'EL. 

This plant is closely related to, and can be grown as 
directed for Coriander. 

LAVEITDEE. 

Lavender is grown solely for its perfume. For home 
use, the long stems, five or six inches in length, are cut 
from the bushes when in flower, tied in small bunches 
and dried. The flowers and stems are placed in drawers, 
or closets among table-linen, clothing, etc. The plants 
are easily grown from seed, or they may be propagated 
by dividing the roots of old plants. It is better to grow 
them from seed. 

Sow the seed in a box in the house about the middle 
of March, in rows one inch apart, dropping two or three 
seeds to each inch of row. If the plants begin to crowd 
each other before it is time to set them out in the open 
ground, transplant into a larger box, pricking them out 
to two or three inches apart each way. These strong, 
stocky plants, after hardening off, should be set out on 
loose, warm, sandy soil, in the garden, from fifteen to 
twenty inches apart each way. The younger and weaker 
plants, if the weather is warm, might be set out in a bed 
in the garden in rows ten inches apart and two or three 
inches apart in the row. In this bed they may be allowed 
to remain until the following spring, when they can be 
taken up with a good ball of earth and set out wherever 



148 GAEDEKIliTG POR TOUNG AIsTD OLD. 

there is room for them in the flower beds, or in rows two 
feet apart and from fifteen to twenty inches apart in the 
row. Lavender will in time be extensively grown in this 
country. 

CARAWAY. 

The seeds of Caraway are sometimes introduced into 
cheese and mixed with bread, cake, cookies, etc. The 
leaves, when young, are sometimes used for flavoring 
soups and salads. The plants are easily grown, and may 
be treated as recommended for Coriander. 

WORMWOOD. 

"Wormwood is perhaps not entitled to be called a sweet 
herb, but it is certainly a very useful plant, and should 
be grown in every farmer's garden. For sprains, worm- 
wood and vinegar is a time-honored remedy. The leaves 
are chopped up with Eue and Cress, and mixed with 
the food of young turkies. An infusion of Wormwood 
seeds with Chamomile flowers, is often taken as a tonic. 
Wormwood can be sown in a warm border early in April, 
in rows fifteen inches apart, and thinned to ten inches 
apart in the row. Next year every second plant may be 
dug up for transplanting, and still leave those on the 
original bed thick enough. If the plants are dug up 
with a good ball of earth their growth will not be 
checked. 

EUE. 

This very old-fashioned medicinal plant can be grown 
in the same way as Wormwood. 

ANISE. 

Anise does not transplant readily, and the seed should 
be sown where it is intended that the plants shall re- 



SWEET HEEBS. 149 

main, in drills fifteen inches apart, dropping two seeds to 
each inch of row, and covering half an inch deep. The 
plants may be thinned out to five or six inches apart in 
the row. 

BASIL. 

Start the seeds in a box in the house, or if this is not 
conven^'ent, sow in a warm border in rows twelve inches 
apart, dropping two or three seeds to each inch of row. 
The plants can be used when two or three inches high. 
Thin out for use until the plants are left seven or eight 
inches apart in the row. The leaves have a strong clove- 
like odor, and are used in soups and salads. 

DILL. 

This can be grown in the way recommended for Ba- 
sil. It delights in a warm, dry, sandy soil. 



CULTIVATION OF FLOV^ERS. 



Some people think, or rather they say, that it does not 
pay to cultivate flowers. Whatever they may say, I do 
not believe that they really think so. If they do, they 
are certainly mistaken. It pays wonderfully well — ^just 
as it pays to be clean and neat, kind and polite. It is 
not necessary to argue the question. I feel sure that my 
young friends love flowers, and my business is to tell how 
to grow them with the least trouble and expense, in the 
greatest perfection and profusion. For my own part, I 
would rather see them in profusion than in perfection. 
I do not care how perfect they are, but I want a good 
many of them; this is especially true of annual flowers, or 
flowers grown every year from seeds. We will talk about 
them in alphabetical order. 

ALYSSUM. 

Sweet Alyssum, as it is usually called, is a very hardy 
plant, growing about six inches high 
with clusters of small white flowers, 
decidedly fragrant and very pretty. 
Sow the seeds of this plant as soon as 
the frost is out of the ground in the 
spring, in rows wide enough apart to 
admit the use of a 
hoe. Drop three or 
four seeds to each 
inch of row, and 
after the plants 
^. „„ are fairly started. 

Fig. 33.— SWEET ALTSSUM. *' ' 

thin out to one or 
two inches apart. Keep the ground well hoed and free 
(150) 





AGBSATUM — ASPEEULA. 151 

from weeds, the plant is so hardy that it is not necessary 
to sow the seed in the hot-bed. 

AGERATUM. 

This is a useful flower for bouquets, and very robust, 
some of the varieties growing two feet high, and pro- 
ducing a great abundance of white or lavender-colored 
flowers. Sow a few seeds in a box in the house, and set 
out the plants fifteen to twenty inches apart as soon 
as the weather will permit. 

ABRONIA. 

Ahronia umhellata, the species most cultivated, is a Oal- 
ifornian plant, trailing along on the ground, and some- 
what resembling the Verbena. It has fragrant lilac and 
rose-colored flowers, which are very abundant, and con- 
tinue in bloom until cut down by frost. Sow the seed 
in a hot-bed or in a box in the house, and set out the 
plants fifteen inches apart, as recommended elsewhere 
for Drummond's Phlox. 

AGROSTEMMA. 

The annual Agrostemmas are sometimes called, I do 
not know why, ''The Rose of Heaven." The roses of 
earth are much more beautiful. Still the annual Agros- 
temma is a hardy, free blooming plant, with pretty flow- 
ers, somewhat resembling our old-fashioned pinks. Cul- 
tivation similar to Phlox. 

ASPERULA. 

This is a hardy annual, growing about ten inches high; 
a profuse bloomer, with fragrant, and pretty lavender- 
colored flowers, in clusters. Cultivate the same as Sweet 
Alyssum. 



152 



GARDEJSrasTG FOR TOUKG AND OLD. 



ASTERS— CHINA. 



We have now China Asters as large and handsome, as 
double/ and as perfect as the Dahlia. I know of no an- 
nual flower that has been so wonderfully improved as 
this, during the past twenty-five years. No garden 
should be without its bed of Asters. You can not have too 
many of them; they are in full bloom in autumn, when 
most other flowers have disappeared, and they continue in 
perfection until cut down by frost. The cultivation of 

Asters presents no dif- 
ficulties that may not be 
readily overcome by the 
exercise of a little pa- 
tience and skill. Asters 
can be transplanted read- 
ily, and, if convenient, 
can be sown in a box in 
thehouse,in rows an inch 
and a half or two inches 
apart, and two or three 
seeds to each inch of 
row; cover very lightly 
with fine soil, or sifted 
dry moss. When the 
plants begin to crowd, 
prick them out into 
other boxes, or into a 
cold frame, giving them 




Fig. 34. — ASTEK — P^ONT-FliOWEKED. 



more room. The oftener they are transplanted, and the 
more room you give them, the more stocky and better will 
be the plants. As soon as the weather becomes settled, and 
the soil is warm and in fine condition, set out in the bed 
or border, watering the plants before taking them up, un- 
til the soil is thoroughly saturated. Do not pull up the 
plants, but take them up with a hand-fork or trowel, and 



CHIHA ASTEES. 



153 



■with the fingers pressing the moist earth into a ball 
around the roots, set them in the ground up to the lower 
leaves, and if the weather is dry, press the soil firmly 
around the roots. If the soil is moist, it must not be 
pressed so firmly around the roots. The proper distance 
apart depends on the variety; I usually plant the large 




Fig. 35. — ASTER FLOTVEB. 

kinds fifteen inches apart each way; the smaller, or dwarf 
varieties, should be planted in rows fifteen inches apart, 
and every seven and a half inches in the row. Keep the 
ground entirely free from weeds by the constant use of 
the hoe or rake. During a severe drouth, the ground 
may be mulched with the clippings of the lawn. Wa- 
tering with a solution of superphosphate, say one table- 
spoonful to a gallon of water, will prove beneficial. 

The varieties of Asters are numerous, and can be raised 
true from seed. The lamented Darwin states that he 
procured packets of twenty-five named varieties of com- 



154 



GAEDElflKG POR YOUNG AKD OLD. 



mon and quilled Asters, and raised one linndred and 
twenty-four plants, of which all except ten were true; 
many of the sub-varieties, however, so closely resemble 
each other, that it is not worth while trying to keep them 
distinct. Asters may be divided into three classes : the 
tall-growing kinds, of which Truffaut's Pseony-flowered 
Perfection, and New Eose, are well known, and excellent 
varieties. The plants of these grow about two feet in 




36.— DWAKF BOUQUET ASTEB. 



heightj and it is desirable to tie them to stakes, as they 
are liable to be broken during a high wind. There is a 
medium class, growing about fifteen inches high; one 
of the best of these is New Chrysanthemum-flowered 
"Dwarf. The third class is a dwarf kind, consisting of a 
pyramidal mass of flowers with a few leaves at the base 
near the ground. Some think they are very beautiful. 
They range from five to ten inches in height, and go by 
the name of " Dwarf Bouquet Asters." 



BALSAMS. 

BALSAMS. 



155 



Like the Aster, the Balsam has been greatly improved. 
It was formerly called Lady's Slipper, from the shape 
of the flower; the plant was large and coarse, and had 
little to recommend it, except the green, healthy appear- 
ance of the foliage, and the vigor of its growth. When 




Fig. 37. — ^BALSAMS — PLAMTS A1?D FLOWERS. 

yon wish to improve a plant, or animal, native vigor, or 
healthy growth, is one of the essential points to start 
with. If you wished to whittle a doll out of a piece of 
pine wood, the original stick ought to be a good deal 
larger than the doll, so that there may be an opportunity 
to make it into the desired form, by cutting away the 



156 GAEDENIKG FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 

superfluous parts. So it is in improving a plant; we make 
it smaller and more beautiful by breeding off what we do 
not want, and encouraging the development and growth of 
those parts which we desire. The Balsam of to-day has 
branches and leaves so much smaller and finer than those 
of the old-fashioned Lady's Slipper, that our great-grand- 
mothers would hardly recognize the plant, the flowers of 
which are much larger and more handsome than formerly. 
The Balsam still retains much of its native vigor; it is a 
healthy, hardy, clean-looking annual; it is transplanted 
easily, and is a good plant of which to sow a few seeds, 
[selecting, of course, the choicest varieties,] in a box in the 
house, and treat the plants as recommended for Asters. 
With Balsams, as with Asters, it is desirable to get good, 
stocky plants, and the oftener we transplant them when 
young, and the more room we give them, the more satis- 
faction will they give us when set out in the garden. The 
seed can be sown in the open ground where the plants are 
to remain, or it may be sown in a warm border, in rows 
wide enough apart to admit the use of a narrow hoe. 
Drop two or three seeds to each inch of row, and cover 
as lightly as possible, if the ground is moist. If the soil 
is dry, press down the soil after the seed is sown, by pat- 
ting the whole surface of the bed with the back of the 
spade. As soon as the plants appear, hoe lightly between 
the rows, pulling out all the weeds, and if any of the 
plants are too thick in some parts of the row, transplant 
them, either into a new row, or to the first row when 
there are not enough plants. It is very desirable not to 
have them too thick, for, as already said, strong, stocky 
plants are wanted there, and you cannot have such unless 
they have plenty of room in which to grow. It is not 
necessary to plant Balsams in a bed by themselves; they 
look quite as well when set out separately, as when massed 
together. If there is any part of the flower garden where 
you do not know what else to set out, put in a Balsam. 



BAETONIA. 157 

The Balsam is a hardy, vigorous plant, and will do well 
if sown in the open ground, where it is intended to re- 
main, but you will get much finer flowers by sowing early 
and transplanting frequently. Frequent transplanting 
checks the yigorous growth of the branches and favors 
the development of the flowers. The branches may be 
pinched off, and the plant trained to sticks, or to a trellis 
in any desired form, as shown in the illustrations on 
page 155. If planted in a bed by themselves. Balsams 
should be set out in rows, fifteen to eighteen inches 
apart, and from ten to eighteen inches apart in the 
row. My own plan is, to set them fifteen inches apart 
each way. There are many varieties of Balsams, but, ex- 
cept for the professional florist, the three following varie- 
ties are most likely to give general satisfaction: Camellia- 
flowered, in mixed colors; Eose-flowered, double, in 
mixed colors; Extra-double-dwarf, mixed colors. 

BARTONIA. 

The Bartonia aurea, or Golden Bartonia, is a native of 
California. The plant is about eighteen inches high, the 
numerous large and showy bright yellow flowers having a 
metallic lustre. The seed should be sown in the open 
ground, in rich soil that has been heavily manured and 
thoroughly prepared the autumn previous. Sow as early 
in the spring as the ground is in good condition, in rows 
fifteen inches apart, dropping a seed every two or three 
inches in the row. The plants are not transplanted 
readily, and it is best to sow where they are intended to 
remain. Hoe lightly and frequently, between the rows, 
and keep the bed entirely free from weeds. In a severe 
drouth, it would be well to mulch the soil, between the 
rows, with the clippings of the lawn. 



158 GAEDE]Sri2S"G FOE YOUNG AKD OLD. 

BRACHTCOME. 

The Bracliycoine {B.iberidifolia) is an Australian plant, 
found on the banks of Swan River, and popularly called 
the "Swan River Daisy." It grows about eight inches 
high, and produces an abundance of flowers. For the 
first eight years after its introduction there was no vari- 
ation in the color or character of its flowers ; but we 
have now two distinct varieties, one pure white and the 
other rose-colored. This is a useful edging plant to sow 
around the borders of a bed, leaving the plants four or 
five inches apart. It deserves far more attention than it 
has yet received. 

CANDYTUFT. 

Candytuft can be sown either in spring or in autumn. 
It is a very hardy plant, easily grown, and a general favor- 
ite. I like to see a large bed of it sown early in spring in 





Fig. 38.— CANDYTUFT. 

rows one foot apart, and the seeds sown quite thickly in 
the row — say three or four seeds to the inch. By the 
middle of June, the flowers will begin to show themselves, 



CAKDYTUPT. 159 

and will continue to flower for several weeks. This is 
a very easy and a very common method of growing Candy- 
tuft. Finer plants and larger flowers can be grown by giv- 
ing the plants more room, and they will continue much 
longer in bloom. Candytuft can be readily transplanted, 
and a good plan is, to set them out in rows nine inches 
apart each way ; the land should be rich and kept entirely 
free from weeds. Candytuft is not only very pretty but 
it is very sweet; you cannot have too much of it in the 
house, and for the good of the plants you cannot cut ofE 
the flowers too frequently. If you allow it to go to seed 
the plant is soon exhausted, and the way to prevent this 
is to cut the flowers as fast as they appear. 

I have heard people say that they raised flowers not 
for bouquets, or for use in the house, but because they 
wanted to see them in the garden. I have a dim recol- 
lection of making some such remark myself, when I was 
a boy, and did not know any better, Now, I like to see 
flowers in the house ; in the parlor, in the library, or on 
the dining-room fable, anywhere and everywhere. But 
if one prefers to have them in the garden, if he does not 
care about cutting them, but would rather let them 
grow, there is no objection. In this case. Candytuft 
should be sown in succession, say as early as possible in 
spring, and then at intervals of two weeks, until the first 
of July. Again in August and September, sow a bed in 
a sheltered portion of the garden, where the plants can 
remain all the winter. 

There are numerous varieties ; the Pure White being 
the most popular. It is fragrant and a profuse bloomer. 
Carminia is a new variety which bids fair to be a decided 
acquisition. These, with the Sweet-scented Pure "White, 
from carefully grown seed, are all that will be needed, 
except by the professional florist. 



160 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

CALENDULA, OR POT-MARIGOLD. 

The Pot-Marigolds are well-known and popular flow- 
ers. They have been greatly improved, and some of the 
new varieties are decidedly superior to the old kind. 
Cultivation similar to that of Phlox Drummondii. 

COREOPSIS, OR CALLIOPSIS. 

The Coreopsis is a hardy, easily grown and very showy 
flower. It is best to sow the seeds in a bed by them- 
selves, in rows fifteen inches apart, and thin the plants to 
three or four inches apart in the rows. The flowers are 
on slender foot-stalks over two feet high. The soil can 
not be made too rich, or kept too clean, as much of the 
beauty of the bed will depend on having the plants strong 
and vigorous. A weedy, poverty-stricken bed of Coreop- 
sis presents a sorry appearance, but if the plants are well 
grown the bed will be very showy and attractive. 

CANNA— INDIAN SHOT. 

The Cannas are now attracting much attention ; being 
large, vigorous growing plants. Some of the varieties 
attain the height of five or six feet, or even more, with 
broad, long leaves, which look fresh and beautiful in our 
hot and dusty weather. A fine bed of well-grown Can- 
nas is very pleasant to the eye, and even a single plant is 
very attractive. 

The Canna can be grown from seed the first year, but 
to get fine, large plants the first season, it is necessary to 
sow the seed in a hot-bed or in a box in the house in 
March, and transplant into larger boxes, as soon as they 
begin to crowd ; if the plants do well, they will soon 
need transplanting a second time, and by far the better 
way is, to pot them and place the pots in a hot-bed, not 



CALLIRRHOE. — CATCHFLT. 161 

forgetting to plunge them well into the soil. Cannas 
will stand considerable heat, but ventilation and watering 
must not neglected. 

The soil selected for Cannas in the garden should be 
made very fine and mellow, with a large quantity of leaf- 
mould, or manure, thoroughly worked into it. If the 
plants are doing well in the hot-bed do not be in a hurry 
to remove them. Set out the plants from eighteen inches 
to two feet apart, each way. They should have plenty of 
room, and the ground be kepb carefully hoed and free 
from weeds, and it will be well to mulch the surface 
with litter, or the clippings of the lawn. In autumn 
take up the roots, and pack them away in dry sand for 
the winter. Set them out again in the spring and they 
will produce very fine plants. 

CALLIRRHOE. 

The cultivation of the annual Callirrhoe ( C. pedata) is 
similar to that of Drummond's Phlox ; it may be sown in 
the open ground where it is intended to remain, or the 
plants may be started in the house and set out fifteen 
inches apart. A large bed of them, if the soil is rich 
and the plants vigorous and healthy, is very showy. The 
plants commence to bloom early and continue to produce 
their purple flowers until cut down by frost. 



CATCHFLY. 

The cultivation of the Catchfly is very similar to that 
recommended for Candytuft. It is a hardy plant, grow- 
ing about a foot high, a free bloomer | a well-grown bed 
of it is very attractive. The plants require rich land and 
clean culture. 



163 GARDENING FOR YOUNG A^T) OLD. 

COCKSCOMB— CELOSIA. 

The Celosia, or Cockscomb, is a very interesting and 
attractive, though not particularly beautiful plant. The 
flower-stem, "instead of growing erect, assumes the form 
of a cock's comb, and in the hands of skillful gardeners, 
with the aid of high manuring, this fasciated compound 
flower-stem attains an enormous size. One was exhib- 
ited in London eighteen inches in breadth. To attain 
any thing like this size, the plants should be started early 
and set out in the richest of soil. The plants may be 
grown as recommended for Asters; except that when set 
out in the garden, they should be allowed more room to 
spread themselves. If the object is to grow as large flow- 
ers as possible, the more room you give the plants the 
better. Ordinarily the plants may be set out from two 
and one half to three feet apart. 

CONVOLVULUS, OR MORNING GLORY. 

"We have two kinds of Morning Glory; one is a climb- 
ing plant, growing with great rapidity, and throwing out 
a constant succession of flowers. The other is a dwarf 




Fig. 39. — DWARF CONVOLVULUS, FLOWEB AND PLANT. 

plant. If we were speaking of beans, we should call 
one the pole kind, and the other the bush kind. The 
botanist has called one Ipomcea purpurea, and the other 
Convolvulus tricolor. The first named is a very rapid- 



DIANTHUS. 163 

growing climber, and can often be advantageously used 
to hide some unsightly spot or building. The trellis, 
poles, or strings, should be provided as soon as the plants 
commence to run, so that they may cling to them from 
the start. The soil can hardly be made too rich. If 
the soil is rich enough, and the surface of the land for 
several feet around is kept free from weeds, you may have 
three or four plants to each foot of trellis. During the 
heat of the day, the flowers are closed, but early in the 
morning they are out m full bloom, and are seen in all 
their glory. 

Convolvulus tricolor, is a dwarf or bush Convolvulus ; 
a bed of it, when well grown, is very showy and attrac- 
tive. It is a good plan to plant the seed in hills fifteen 
inches apart, putting four seeds in each hill. It is gen- 
erally recommended to plant them much farther apart, 
but I like to see the bed fully occupied. 

DIANTHUS. 

The genus Dianthus includes several of our most pop- 
ular flowers, such as the Sweet William, the Carnation, 
the Picotee, and the common garden Pink. The kinds 
most easily grown from seed, and which are at the same 
time desirable in every garden, axe the Dianthus Chinensis, 
and Dianthus Reddewigii, or Japanese Pinks; both can be 
easily grown from seed; but if not sown until May or 
June, in the open ground, the plants will give but few 
flowers the first summer. Indeed, it is better in this case 
not to let them flower at all, but to aim to grow strong 
plants for flowering the second season. They will stand 
the winter well, especially if protected with branches of 
evergreens or a light covering of horse litter. 

For flowering the first summer, the plants should be 
grown in the hot-bed or in a box in the house. Sow the 
seed as recommended for Asters, and when the plants are 



164 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

strong and the weather warm, transplant them into a 
very rich, well-prepared border, from ten to fifteen inches 
apart. If you have dwarf varieties, they may be set 
seven or eight inches apart, or nearly wide enough apart 
to admit the use of a narrow hoe. I mention this, be- 
cause it is exceedingly important to keep the soil well 
stirred and entirely free from weeds. The plants will 
flower all summer, and it is absolutely necessary to have 
the soil very rich, or this profuse production of flowers 
will weaken the young plants. If the plants do not grow 
vigorously, pinch oS the flower-buds, and water the bed 
with water containing an ounce, or about a tablespoonful 
of superphosphate to a gallon, applying a gallon of this 
solution to a dozen plants. The dose may be repeat- 
ed in two weeks; more than this will not be necessary, 
though another dose will do no harm. 



*t3^ 



DELPHINIUM, OR LARKSPI3R 

The Rocket Larkspur is a well-known and popular flow- 
er, easily grown from seed. But as it is not transplant- 
ed very readily, and has to be sown in the open ground, 
where the plants are to remain, it does not make as large 
a growth as it would if it could bo started in a hot-bed. 
Sow the seed in a well-prepared border as early in the 
spring as the ground can begot into good condition. Sow 
in rows a foot apart, and thin out the plants to four or five 
inches apart in the row. Keep the ground clean, and 
water with a little superphosphate water, as directed for 
the Pinks. Or what will perhaps be just as well in 
this case, sow from one to two ounces, or one to two 
tablespoonfuls, of superphosphate to each square yard of 
bed at the time of sowing the seed, or at any time after- 
wards, when there is a prospect of a good soaking rain. 

The Branching Larkspur requires more room than the 
Rocket Larkspur, and the plants should be set from 



DIGITALIS, OE FOXGLOVE. — DOLIOHOS, ETC. 165 

twelve to fifteen inches apart. All the Larkspurs require 
a deep, rich, moist soil. They do better on the north 
side of a slope, where they are shaded, rather than in the 
full bla25e of our hot sun. 



DIGITALIS, OR FOXGLOVE. 

The Digitalis, or Foxglove, is not an annual, but is 
easily grown from seed, and deserves to be more generally 
cultivated than it now is. The plant throws up several 
flower-stems, two or three feet in height, each stem be- 
ing covered at its upper portion with a dozen or more 
large, well-shaped flowers. 

The seeds may be sown in a hot-bed, or in a box in 
the house, or in the open ground, but in the latter case 
no flowers will be obtained the first year, or, if the plants 
throw \ip any flower-stalks they should be cut off; the 
next year the plants will be strong, and produce a great 
profusion of flowers. In the following autumn, or spring, 
the roots of the plant may be divided, and in this way 
you will soon have all the Foxgloves you require. The 
plants may be set out the first year, from twelve to fif- 
teen inches apart, but the second year they will be thick 
enough if they stand two to three feet apart. 

DOLIOHOS, OR HYACINTH-BEAN. 

The cultivation of this beautiful climber is similar to 
that recommended for the Lima-bean. The plant grows 
even taller than the Scarlet Runner, but it is not so hardy; 
it delights in our hot sun, and should be planted in the 
warmest and driest soil. Like all rapid-growing plants, 
it requires an abundance of food, and the soil cannot be 
too liberally manured. 



166 GAEDENING FOE YOUifG AND OLD. 

GILIA TKICOLOR AND OTHERS. 

The children will all like the Gilias, if for no other 
reason than because they come so soon into flower. The 
seed may be sown in a box in the house, by the middle of 
March, and the plants transplanted as soon as the weather 
will permit; they do not bear transplanting readily, ex- 
cept when young. Sometimes a few of the plants will 
flower in the box before you are ready to set them out. 

Perhaps the better way is, to sow the seeds in rings 
in the garden. If you take a common two-tined fork 
you can make a circle, in the circumference of which sow 
the Gilia seeds, dropping them from an inch and a half 
to two inches apart, m the mark made by the fork. If 
you use a three- tined fork you can make two rings. Sow 
the seed in both rings, two or three inches apart. 

HELIANTHUS, OR SUNFLOWER. 

My young friends must not fail to sow a few Sunflower 
seeds. They come up so soon, and grow so rapidly, that 
the plants become objects of interest from the start. Sow 
three or four seeds in a hill, as you would com, say three 
feet apart, and thin out to two plants in a hill. Or plant 
a hill in any vacant spot or corner. You may plant a 
row along the fence, being careful, however, to leaye 
space enough between the Sunflowers and the fence to 
admit of the use of the cultiyator, or the hoe; thin out 
the plants to a foot apart. The Sunflower delights in a 
rich soil and an abundance of sunshine. It is a coarse 
plant, but is not without its attractions. The single 
varieties are more vigorous and, of course, produce much 
more seed than the double sorts. The seed is much rel- 
ished by poultry. It is usually sown about the time we 
plant corn, but it may be put in at any time in the spring, 
as it is not injured by frost. See Sunflower, Double. 



KAULFUSSIA. — LUPUSTES. — MALOPE. 167 

KAULFUSSIA. 

An attractive little plant, coming very early into flower, 
but not lasting long. It is hardy. Sow a few circles of 
them, as recommended for Gilia. 

LUPINES. 

The Lupines are a well-known and very hardy genus 
of plants, belonging to the Pea family. Some of the 
species are grown as food for stock, and also for plowing 
under to enrich the land. I suppose it is called Lupine, 
or Wolf, because of its power to live on poor, hungry 
soils. Some of the Lupines are not a foot in height, 
while others grow on rich soil, from five to six feet high. 
There is a great variety of colors. The Lupine has a long 
tap-root, and gets its food from the sub-soil. It does not 
transplant easily, and should be sown where it is intended 
to remain. The Dwarf varieties can be sown in rings, 
like Gilias; the larger sorts should be sown in rows, fif- 
teen inches to two feet apart, dropping three or four seeds 
in each hill, and thin out to single plants, after they are 
fairly established. 

MALOPE. 

The Malope grandiflora has a very large, showy flower; 
the plant is hardy, and vigorous, growing about three 
feet high. The seed may be sown in a box in the house, 
and the plants set out a,s soon as the weather is suitable, 
in the open ground, fifteen inches to two feet apart. 
The seed can be sown in" the open ground, and make 
equally good plants, but not so early. 



168 



GAEDEKING FOB YOUNG AND OLD. 



MIGNONETTE. 



The children should get half a dozen packets of Mig- 
nonette seed with which to experiment. Let them sow a 
little seed when they like, where they like, and how 
they like. Wherever there is a little soil, two or three 
inches in depth, they can grow Mignonette. It will not 
grow in the oven or on top of the stove, because it is too 
hot; it will not grow in a dark cellar, because it requires 
light; it will not grow in the refrigerator, because it is 
too cold; it will not grow in the ash-pit, because it is too 
dry. But wherever there is a little fine, 
mellow soil, and it can be kept moist, 
in a moderately warm place, with more 
or less sunshine, especially more, there 
you can grow Mignonette. It does not 
matter whether the soil is 
in a beautiful flowerpot, 
or in an old tin can with a 
hole in the bottom. But of 
course while Mignonette 
will grow under adverse con- 
Fig. 40.— MIGNONETTE. dltlous, it Is better to have 
everything connected with flowers neat and orderly; the 
more simple, the better. A good plan is, to fill a box, a foot 
wide, three inches deep, and just long enough to go upon 
a window-sill, fasten it with wire at the southern or east- 
ern window, in the kitchen, or in some room where it 
never freezes. Fill the box with fine mould, or the finest 
and lightest soil you can get; water the soil with warm 
water, and sow the Mignonette seed, in rows two inches 
apart, and two or three seeds to each inch, sift on a little 
fine soil or pulverized moss, Just sufficient to cover the 
seed. Nothing more will be necessary until the plants 
begin to grow. It will then be necessary to water the 





MIGNONETTE. 169 

plants occasionally, with warm water; the hotter the room 
and the brighter the sun, the more rapidly the plants 
grow, and the oftener v.ill they need to be watered. Be- 
fore the plants begin to crowd each other, pinch a few 
of them off, so as to give those left room to grow. 

In the open ground the bed for Mignonette should be 
prepared in the autumn; it should be carefully spaded, 
and well manured, and worked over with a hoe and rake, 
until it is quite fine and mellow. In the spring sow the 
seed on this bed, as soon as the soil is dry and the weather 
is warm. Unless the soil is a very light and sandy one, 
you must be careful not to work it when it is wet. But 
so soon as the soil is dry, hoe it three or four inches deep, 
and rake it very fine, taking ofE all the stones and rub- 
bish, or dig a hole in the bed, and with a rake pull the 
stones and rubbish into the hole, and cover them up 
with fine soil. Mark the bed both ways, with a marker 
nine or ten inches wide, and drop three or four seeds 
where the lines cross each other, cover them, and if the 
soil IS dry, pat it with the back of the spade. The seed 
IS small, and must not be covered more than a quarter of 
an inch deep; if the ground is moist enough, the less 
covering the better. A tablespoonful of superphosphate 
to each square yard of bed, scattered broadcast on the 
surface, either before the seed is sown or afterwards, will 
be very beneficial. 

As soon as the plants appear, hoe lightly between the 
rows, and all around the plants; this will leave very lit- 
tle weeding to be done. I recommend sowing three or 
four or more seeds in a hill, because the plants will come 
up better, and because we do not want any gaps. We do 
not need, however, more than one good plant in a place, 
and these should be far enough apart to admit the use of 
a hoe. If preferred, the seed can be sown in drills from 
eight to twelve inches apart, dropping two or three seeds 
to each inch of row, afterwards thinning out the plants 



170 GARDElsriKG FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 

to two or three inches apart. But the other plan will 
give finer plants and there is less af terwork. 

Another bed should be sown a week or two later; and 
if the early sown bed is on warm, dry soil, facing the 
south, and the other bed on deep, rich soil, sloping to 
the north, or the north-west or north-east, you will have 
a longer succession of Mignonette in full flower and fra- 
grance. The more flowers you gather, the more you will 
have. If you do not cut the flowers, they will go to seed 
and this weakens the plant; but the better way is to sow 
large beds at different times. Mignonette can be trans- 
planted, but the work has to be done skillfully, and it is 
better to sow the seed where the plants are intended to 
remain. A bed of Mignonette should be sown in the au- 
tumn; this will give early flowers next spring. You can 
not have too many beds of Mignonette, nor can they be 
too large. 

MIMOSA, OR SENSITIVE PLANT. 

The species known as Mimosa pudica, or Sensitive 
Plant, is exceedingly interesting ; it is very pretty, but 
its chief charm, especially to the children, lies in the 
fact that when you touch it, all the leaves instantly curl 
up, and the branch falls down. 

The seed should be sown early in the spring m the hot- 
bed or in a box m the house. When the plants begin to 
crowd, if the soil outside is not thoroughly warm, prick 
them out into a larger box, or into pots, and about the 
middle of June, set them out carefully in a well-prepared 
border. It is well to leave a few plants in four or five^ 
inch pots. Plunge the pofcs in the soil so that the rims 
shall be even with the surface, next autumn, and before 
frost, remove these pots to the house. The plants will 
be interesting objects all winter. 



MTOSOTIS. — MIRABILIS. — THE PANSY. 171 

MYOSOTIS, OK FOEGET-ME-NOT. 

The Forget-me-not requires a deep, rich, moist and 
mellow soil. It is best to start the plants in a hot-bed, 
or box in the house, though the seed may be sown in the 
open ground. The plants do better on a northern slope, 
or in a moist and somewhat shady place. The plant is 
perennial. 

MIEABILIS, OR MARVEL OF PERU. 

Make the ground very rich and mellow, sow the seeds 
in a row where you can hoe on each side of it, at least a 
foot in width. Drop a seed in each two or three inches 
of row, and cover by patting the soil with the back of the 
hoe. The plants should be thinned out to a foot apart. 
The plants are about two feet high, and if they have 
plenty of room, will throw out numerous branches. The 
flowers are large and fragrant, and quite showy. 

THE PANSY. 

The Pansy, or Heart's-ease, is not only one of the most 
popular, but one of the most beautiful of flowers. The 
improvement which has been made in the size and colors 
of the flowers is most marvellous. How this has been 
effected it is not necessary to inquire. We know this, 
however, that the plants, or rather the flowers, will rapidly, 
degenerate and decrease in size and brilliancy, when 
grown on poor soil, and their cultivation neglected. 

If you would have the best of Pansies you must not 
only get seed from the best sources, but careful atten- 
tiou must be given to every condition of growth. 

It is a very easy matter to grow really good Pansies. 
Pansy seed, sown last spring in a box in the house, the 
last of March, gave us strong plants, which, on June 25th, 



172 



GAEDEKI2S"G FOE YOUNG AKD OLD. 



were flowering out of doors. Our season last year was 
from two to three weeks later than usual. I mention 
this to show that the children can, and do very readily, 
raise good Pansies without much weary waiting. And 
the beauty of it is, that these Pansies will continue to 
produce more and more flowers during the whole summer. 
The plants I speak of were transplanted two or three 
times, before the soil in the garden was warm enough to 

set them out. Early 
sowing, and frequent 
transplanting, so as to 
produce strong, stocky 
plants, is a great advan- 
tage. The Pansies are 
supposed to require a 
great deal of water. 
Perhaps so, perhaps 
not. At any rate, one of 
the most common mis- 
takes, when raising 





THE PANST. 



plants in the hot-bed, or in the boxes in the house, is to 
give them too much water. What the plants really need is, 
the richest of rich soils. If you want to make good 
coffee, you must put a good deal of coffee in the pot, 
and very little water. You would not get much coffee, 
but what you do get will be good. For my part, I would 
rather have half a cup of good coffee than two cups of 
poor. And I fancy that Pansies, to produce the largest 



THE P^KST. 173 

flowers, require the richest of plant food. In other words, 
you must not put too much water in their coffee. The 
sap of the soil on which they live, should be as rich and as 
concentrated as you can make it. Such a soil would ap- 
pear to be very moist, while in point of fact it may hold 
comparatively little water. It will simply hold more 
water during dry weather than a soil that has not been 
so heavily manured. The probabilities are, that this 
effect is produced by the formation of nitrates, by the 
oxidation of the nitrogenous matter in the heavily man- 
ured soil. 

If this is the true explanatim, what we want to pro- 
duce the largest and best pansies is, first, a soil thoroughly 
underdrained, at least three feet deep ; secondly, a soil 
that is carefully spaded two feet deep and a good wheel- 
barrowful of manure to each square yard of ground, 
thoroughly worked into the soil, a foot or fifteen inches 
deep. Then work into the surface soil all the rich, well- 
rotted manure, say from an old hot-bed, you can make it 
hold. Few people know how much manure they can 
work into the soil until they set about the work in 
earnest. Mark you, the manure must be well incor- 
porated with the soil with a potato hook or hoe, as you 
would a heap of mortar ; work it and keep working it 
until there is not a lump of soil, or manure left bigger 
than a grain of mustard seed. 

On such a soil sow the seed, or set out the plants as 
soon as the weather is warm and settled in the spring, 
but it is best not to be in too great a hurry. The plants 
may be set out in rows nine iiiches apart each way. Or 
if preferred, plant in rows fifteen inches apart, leaving 
one plant every five or six inches in the row. If seed is 
sown in such a bed as I have described, I would sow in 
rows a foot apart, and drop the seeds one to two inches 
in the row. The drill mark should not be over half an 
inch deep. Cover the seed by patting the surface of the 



l'i'4 GAEDENING TOK TOUISTG AND OLD. 

bed with the back of the spade or hoe. The varieties of 
Pansy are very numerous. I think my young friends will 
do well, at first, to sow only the choicest and best seed of 
mixed varieties. They may obtain plants of some of the 
newer varieties from the professional florists. 

SWEET-PEAS. 

The Sweet-pea, one of the most fragrant and beautiful 
of flowers, is grown precisely like other peas; it is exceed- 
ingly hardy, and grows well in a great variety of soils. 
To have Sweet Peas in perfection, however, three things 
are essential; rich land, early sowing, and the cleanest 
and best of culture. Perhaps it may be well to say in 
addition, that the plants should have plenty of room be- 
tween the rows, say not less than three feet, and at the 
same time it is desirable to sow the peas quite thickly in 
the row. When thus sown, the peas come up earlier and 
better, and check the growth of the small weeds in the 
row; if you have only one row, be sure to have plenty of 
room on each side of the row for the use of the hoe or 
cultivator. I have seen Sweet-peas sown along a fence, 
but never knew them to do really well, because the plants 
were so close to the fence that they could not be hoed on 
both sides of the row. The peas must be provided with 
sticks or strings, or a trellis to cling to. I said "must 
be," because this is the neatest and best Avay, and not 
because the supports are absolutely necessary. In rais- 
ing Sweet-peas in large quantities for seed, we do not 
stick them, but sow them in rows two and a half feet 
apart, precisely as we do common peas when growing 
them for market. If the ground is very rich and clean, 
and the soil well cultivated between the rows, you will 
have a finer growth and a mass of the sweetest and most 
beautiful flowers. 

The land for Sweet-peas should be dug and heavily 



PETUNIA. 



175 



manured the previous autumn, and the moment the frost 
is out of the ground in the spring, sow the peas, putting 
at least two seeds to each inch of row. An ordinary 
sized packet, as sent out by the seedsmen, would be 
about sufficient for a couple of circles some nine inches 
in diameter, and if this is all you intend to sow, perhaps 
sowing them in a circle is as good a plan as any; place a 
stick about three feet high, with a few branches on it, in 
the center of the circle for the peas to climb upon. 

PETUNIA. 



The Petunia has been greatly improved during the last 
few years, and is now one of our most popular flowers. 

It is easily grown, and every 
garden should have a large 
bed of it. If a few plants 
only are grown, to be set out 
singly, it is desirable to have 
the finest double varieties; 
but when massed together in 
a large bed, the small-flow- 
ered kinds, with more or less 
double ones amongst them, 
are exceedingly showy and 
pleasing. A good plan is, to 
prepare the bed the au- 
tumn previous, by spading 
and manuring ; in the 
spring, as soon as the soil 
is dry and warm, hoe and 
rake the beds ; mark off 
into rows a foot apart 
and drop four or five seeds where the lines cross. The 
seeds are exceedingly small, and you must be careful not 
to cover them too deep; if patted down with the back of 




Fig. 42. — ^PETtTNIA. 



176 GAKDEKING FOE TOTJKG AlfD OLD. 

the spade, that will be sufiBcient coYering. When the 
plants appear, hoe carefully between the rows and as 
close to the plants as you can, pulling out any weeds that 
may be left. As the plants grow, thin them out, and 
ultimately leave only one good plant in a place. 

DRUMMOND'S PHLOX. 

Of all annual flowers. Phlox Drummondii is my fa- 
vorite. Although it is a native of Texas, it is admirably 
adapted to our climate, and every garden should have a 
large bed of it — the larger the better. It can be grown 
as easily as onions or carrots, in fact with less labor, as 
the plants are farther apart and nearly all the weeds can 
be removed with the hoe. On my farm I grow this Phlox 
in the field, sowing it with a garden drill, in rows twenty- 
one inches apart, precisely as turnips are sown. I mention 
this to show how easily this plant can be grown. It requires 
rich, clean, dry land; a sandy loam is better than either 
a very light sandy soil or one that approximates to a clay. 
For Phlox, as for many other garden crops, the true plan 
is to prepare the land in the autumn, making it as rich, 
deep, clean, and mellow as possible. The more manure 
you work into it, the larger and more brilliant will be 
the flowers, and this is especially the case if we have a 
dry, hot summer. 

The seed should be sown as early as possible in the 
spring. As I said before, you ought to have a large bed 
of it. Single plants set out in beds with other flowers, 
are very pretty, but to bring out the real beauty and ef- 
fectiveness of the Phlox, you should see it in large 
masses. If the bed has been well prepared in the au- 
tumn, as soon as it is dry and in good working condition 
in the spring, hoe the whole surface of the bed three or 
four inches deep, and work it with a potato-hook and 
steel rake until not a lump remains; then mark the bed 



I 



DRTJMMO]SrD's PHLOX. 



177 



into rows twelve or fifteen inches apart, and sow the seed 
in the rows, putting one seed to each two inches of row. 
This is one way; another, and I think a better plan, is, 
to mark the bed both ways in rows twelve or fifteen 
inches apart, and drop three or four seeds in each place 




Fig. 43. — GEorrp op the kewee vabieties of drummond's phlox. 

where the lines cross, covering not more than a quarter of 
an inch deep. If the soil is dry, pat it down with the 
back of the spade or hoe. In this case you do not need 
to put any soil on top of the seeds — ^the patting will cover 
them deep enough. 

Only one plant is needed in a place. I recommend 
sowing three or four seeds, because they wiU come up 



178 GAEDEJSflNG POR TOUKG AND OLD. 

better and quicker, and you are better able to see the 
plants, and hoe around them, before the weeds begin to 
be troublesome. Hoe frequently, and suffer not a weed 
to grow, and when the plants are fairly established, take 
out all but one in a place. Nothing more will be required, 
except to keep the bed entirely free from weeds. 

Drummond's Phlox is so easily grown in this way that 
I hardly like to suggest any other method of cultivation, 
and before doing so, I should like to exact a promise from 
all my young friends, that they will sow a large bed in 
the way just mentioned, whether they do or do not adopt 
the plan I am now about to describe. The truth is, no 
one ever raised half enough of Drummond's Phlox, and 
the following plan will give you a fine lot of early plants, 
which you can raise to excellent purpose, while the bed 
grown from seed sown out of doors, will give you a glori- 
ous display of beautiful flowers, from the middle of July 
until cut down by frost. 

This Phlox can be transplanted as easily as a cabbage, 
and nothing is easier than to raise a fine lot of plants in 
the house or hot-bed. 

About the middle of March sow a box of Phlox seed 
in rows, one inch apart, dropping two or three seeds to 
each inch of row; cover the seed about a quarter of an 
inch deep with sifted dry moss, or less than half that depth 
with sifted sand, or mould. Before sowing the seed, the 
mould in the box should be thoroughly watered with 
blood-warm water. Until the plants appear, all that will 
be necessary to do is, to sprinkle on a little warm water 
to keep the surface moist; when the plants appear, especi- 
ally if the room is warm, and the weather bright and 
sunny, they will require a little water every day. Be 
careful not to give too much water. Before the plants 
begin to crowd each other, transplant them into a larger 
box, or boxes, in rows two inches apart, and the plants 
an inch apart in the row. The soil should be thoroughly 



deummqnd's phlox. 179 

•watered with "warm water before setting out the plants. 
The box from which the plants are removed should also 
be saturated with warm water. Do not try to thin out 
the plants, but take them all up out of the box, as in 
this way comparatively few roots will be broken off. Of 
course the bos from which the plants are taken can also 
be filled with transplanted Phlox plants. 

After the plants are pricked out sift a little pulverized 
moss on the soil, say an eighth of an inch deep; this will 
check evaporation, and in a day or two the plants will be 
growing as vigorously as ever. 

The great point after this is, to give the plants as 
much sunshine as possible. If kept in the shade they 
will be apt to grow up tall and spindlmg; what we 
want is large, stocky plants, hence they must have 
plenty of room. It may be necessary to transplant 
them once more into larger boxes, or you may remove 
every other row of plants, and set them out into a warm 
border, leaving the others to grow a little larger in the 
box in the house. It is necessary, in any case, to harden 
the plants before setting them out in the garden; this 
can be done by putting the boxes out of doors on a bench, 
on the south side of the house. At first, they should 
not be allowed to remain outside for more than an hour or 
so, during the heat of the day, gradually extending the 
time as the plants become stronger and more stocky. 

These plants can be set out either in a large bed, in 
rows twelve to fifteen inches apart each way, or they may 
be set out singly amongst other flowers, wherever there 
is room for them. 

The handsomest bed of Drummond's Phlox I ever 
saw, was on a wide outside border of a large cold 
grapery, sloping towards the south-west; the border had 
been prepared with the greatest care, and enriched for 
three or four feet deep with horn-piths and rich manure. 
From this it is evident that the Phlox, and more especi- 



180 GAEDEKII^G POR YOUNG AND OLD. 

ally the choicest yarieties, will stand high manuring; true, 
you can grow it on any ordinary garden soil, but it will 
repay all the labor bestowed in enriching and mellowing 
the land. The mistake most people make, is in planting 
too thick. On good land, twelve to fifteen inches apart 
each way is close enough. 

The varieties are so numerous that it is hard to say 
which are the best. For my part, I want one pure 
white and one brilliant scarlet. For anything more 
than this I should be willing to trust to good seed of 
mixed varieties, from some trustworthy seed-grower. 

THE POPPY. 

The old-fashioned Poppy, extensively grown for the 
production of opium, is a hardy, vigorous-growing an- 
nual, with a white, single flower. We have, however, a 
number of beautiful varieties, with double flowers of all 
shades of color. We have also dwarf and tall varieties. 

The Poppy is not transplanted readily, and it must 
be sown in the garden where it is intended to remain. 
Select the warmest and driest soil, make it fine and mel- 
low, and sow the seed as early in the spring as the 
weather will permit, or about the time you plant corn. 

The large Pasony-flowered Poppy has double flowers of 
great size and beauty. Thin out the plants to at least 
a foot apart. The small double Eanunculus-flowered 
varieties may be sown in rows about a foot apart, and 
thinned out to seven inches apart m the row. 

If you wish to experiment in growing flowers for opium, 
sow in rows not less than fifteen inches apart, and thin 
out the plants to a sufficient distance to admit of the use 
of the hoe. For this purpose, the best variety is the 
single Papaver somniferum, or Opium Poppy. The time 
may come when the Poppy will be very extensively grown 
here for opium. 



POETULACA. 

POKTULACA. 



181 




Fig. 44.— POETULACA — SINGLE 
I-LOWEK. 



The Portulaca is own brother to the Purslane or 

**Pussley," one of the worst weeds we have on light 

sandy, garden soils. Both are hardy, both thrive best 

in sandy soils, but here the comparison ends. The 

Purslane is a miserable weed, the Portulaca a beautiful 

flower. I have heard it said 
that it is just as easy to raise a 
good thing as a bad one. Not 
so. The Portulaca must be 
cultivated with care, and the 
better the variety, the richer 
must be the soil. The double 
varieties of Portulaca should be 
sown in a box in the house about 
the middle of March, in rows 

one inch apart and two or three seeds to each inch of 

row. When the plants begin to 

crowd each other, take out every 

other row and set them out m an- 
other bos. They are transplanted 

readily, and it is an easy matter to 

get good strong plants to set out in 

the garden as soon as the weather 

will permit. 

It is of course not necessary to 

start the plants in the house, the 

seeds may be sown in the open 

ground. Select the warmest and 

lightest soil, make it as good as 

possible. Eake it smooth and pat 

it down firm with the back of the 

spade, then make shallow drills a foot 

apart and sow the seeds about an 

inch apart in the drill ; cover not more than a quarter 




Fig. 45. — POKTULACA — 

PLANT AND DOUBLE 

FLOWER. 



182 GAEDENIKG FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 

of an inch deep. If you pat the rows with the back of 
tlie s]3ade, this will cover the seed deep enough. If 
the weather is dry it will be well to water the bed 
occasionally until the plants are fairly started. Hoe 
lightly between the rows and suffer not a weed to 
grow. This is yery important, especially when the 
plants are young. Thin out the plants in the row 
to three or four inches apart; those that are remoyed 
may be used to fill yacancies, or to make another bed. 

The plants started in the house can be set out in rows 
a foot apart each way, and if the soil is rich enough, they 
will soon coyer the whole bed. The great point in 
growing Portulaca is to get the plants fairly started ; 
when the roots get firm hold of the soil, the hottest sun 
will not hurt them. 

EICINUS— CASTOE-OIL BEAK 

The Eicinus, or Castor Oil-Bean, is extensiyely grown 
in some parts of this country for making castor oil. The 
plants grow with wonderful yigor, often attaining the 
height of ten feet. The leayes are large and beautiful, 
and the fiowers of many of the yarieties are brilliant and 
attractive. The cultivation is as simple as that of the 
Sun-flower or Indian Corn. Set out a plant m the centre 
of a bed. The Castor Oil-bean can also be used to great 
advantage as an ornamental screen. 

SALPIGLOSSIS. 

The Salpiglossis delights in a warm, sandy soil. The 
plants may be started m the house and set out in rows, a 
foot apart and five or six inches from one another in the 
row. The plants make a fine edging ; for this purpose, 
make a drill around the bed nine inches from the margin, 
sow the seeds about an inch apart, cover lightly, hoe 



STOCKS — TEK WEEKS. 183 

carefully, and thin out the plants to three or four inches 
apart. The dwarf variety is best for this purpose. It 
grows about a foot high, while the ordinary varieties are 
about two feet high. The flowers of both are large and 
showy, and are well worthy a place in every garden. 

STOCKS— TEN WEEKS. 

Those who have had no experience in starting flower 
seeds in a box in the house, would find Ten Weeks Stock 
a good plant to experiment with. Sow the seeds in 
rows an inch apart, and two or three seeds to an inch of 
row. Cover with a little pulverized moss, a quarter of 
an inch deep, or with one-eighth of an inch of sand, or 
mould. Give the soil in the box a thorough watering 
with warm water before sowing the seed; until the plants 
appear nothing more is required, except to sprinkle on 
enough water every day to keep the surface moist. 

The plants of Stock can be transplanted as easily as 
cabbage plants, and as it is always very important to get 
strong, compact plants, you can not transplant them too 
often. As soon as the plants are an inch high, take out 
every other row, and prick them out into another box, 
and as soon as those that are left in the first box begin to 
crowd, if the weather is not warm enough to set them 
out of doors, transplant into another box in the house. 
If the seed is sown the middle of March, you will have 
strong, stocky plants, three inches high, by the middle 
of May. The boxes should then be placed out of doors 
in the sun for a few hours every day, to harden the 
plants. 

Ten Weeks stocks are so hardy and vigorous that they 
will do well on any good garden soil. Set them out just 
as you would a cabbage plant. Put them in the ground 
just deep enough for the lower leaves to reach the surface 



184 GAEDEKINJ FOE YOTJISTG AKD OLD. 

of the soil. Set them a foot apart, hoe frequently, and 
keep the bed entirely free from weeds. 

The Ten Weeks Stock delights in a moist soil and plenty 
of rain. But as we can not always be sure of having 
plenty of moisture, we should make the soil as rich a£ 
possible. This is particularly important if we expect to 
raise double flowers. I do not mean by this, that if we 
expect to grow seed that will produce double flowers, we 
should make the land rich. In point of fact, the seed 
that will produce double flowers is from plants that have 
been starved or dwarfed, the plants being grown with as 
little food and water as possible, and the seed taken from 
the lower haK of the pod, the secondary branches of 
the plant only being allowed to bear seed. What I 
mean is, that when you have seeds grown for the special 
purpose of producing plants that will bear double flowers, 
you can not make the soil too rich for them. 

SUKPLOWER— DOUBLE. 

Every one knows the tall-growing, large-flowered, 
single Sunflower. (See page 166.) Its appearance is gen- 
erally associated with unhinged gates, windows stuffed 
with old hats, and other marks of poverty. Nevertheless, 
even the common Sunflower may be so grouped as to 
present a striking appearance, and there is a dwarf double 
one that is not out of place in any garden. This has been 
in cultivation for many years, but no one seems to know 
how it originated. It has been called the "Many-flow- 
ered," the '^ California Double," the "Hollow Globe," 
and by other names. It produces small, nearly globular 
flowers, of a regular shape, and of a bright golden yel- 
low color; they are without the coarseness of the single 
sunflower, and quite as handsome as a Dahlia. This 
variety is an annual. 



VEEBEIirA. 



185 



YEEBENA. 



It is not at all difficult to raise good Verbena plants 
from seed. Sow the seeds in a box in the house, the 
first or second week in March. The soil can not be too 
rich, and it is very desirable to mix with it about one- 
quarter its bulk of dried and sifted moss. Before sowing 
the seeds, water the soil in the box with warm, or hot 
water, the hotter the better, provided you do not sow the 
seeds until two or three hours after applying the water. 
Sow in rows an inch apart, placing the seeds about half 
an inch apart on the top of moist soil, coyer by scattering 




46. — DOXJBLK ANNUAL SOTTFLOWER. 



on dry, sifted moss, a quarter of an inch deep. Keep 
the box in a warm room. Very little water will be re- 
quired. More plants are lost by excessive watering than 
from all other causes combined. As soon as the plants 



186 GAEDBKIKG FOE TOUKG AJSTD OLD. 

appear, place them in a sunny window; they grow 
slowly at first, and will require very little water — the 
warmer the room, and the brighter the sun, the more wa- 
ter will they need. When the plants are well out of the 
seed leaf, or at any rate before they begin to crowd, or to 
run up too tall, transplant them into a larger box, placing 
them at least an inch apart. The plants should not be 
set out in the garden until the weather is quite warm, 
and all danger of frost is past. If they should get too 
large in the boxes, it is a good plan to set them out in 
two-inch flower pots. Plunge the pots in a box of moist 
earth, or of moss, and after they have got over the check 
from transplanting, place them in a sunny window. 
Water moderately, and always with warm water, say 
about as warm as new milk. For a week before setting 
out in the open ground, the plants should be gradually 
hardened by placing the boxes on the south side of a 
building for an hour or two, during the middle of the day, 
and gradually extending the time until they can be left 
out all night with safety. 

The bed for Verbenas should be a light, dry, warm soil, 
thoroughly enriched, and quite mellow; water the plants 
thoroughly with warm water before removing them from 
the boxes, or pots; disturb the roots as little as possible, 
and set them about fifteen inches apart, and just deep 
enough to bring the lower leaves level with the surface. 
Press the soil firmly around the roots, and if need be, 
shade the plants for a few hours during the heat of the 
day, until the plants recover from the effects of trans- 
planting. Keep the bed well hoed, and free from weeds, 
and it will be a source of great interest and pleasure. 
You never know just what you will get, and it is inter- 
esting to watch the plants as they come into flower. You 
will be sure to have a great variety of all shades of color, 
and if the seeds are good, you will be certain of an ample 
reward for all your labor. 



ZI]S"S"IA. 1811 

ZINNIA. 

The Zinnia is destined to be a yery popular flower. The 
plant is large and vigorous. The flowers are large, pro- 
fuse, and brilliant. They haye been wonderfully im- 
proved during the last few years, and the improvement is 
certain to continue year after year. 

The plants can be grown in a box in the house, as they 
transplant with perfect safety; the oftener they are trans- 
planted the better, as it gives us more and larger flowers 
in proportion to the size of the plant. Set out the plants 
fifteen inches to two feet apart. 

If preferred, the seeds can be sown out of doors, where 
they are intended to remain. But a better plan is, to 
sow a row of them, dropping the seeds about an inch 
apart in the row; cover about an eighth of an inch deep, 
and when the plants are well out of the seed leaf, set 
them out in any part of the garden, where you have 
room for a strong, vigorous-growing plant, two feet high 
and two or three feet across. If the seed is good, the 
first flowers may not be so large or so double as those 
produced by the same plant later in the season. 



INDEX. 



Abronia .151 

Ageratuin 151 

Agrostemma.. 151 

Alyssum, Sweet 150 

Anise 148 

Asparagus 31 

Asperula 151 

Asters, China 152 

Dwarf Bouquet 154 

Chrysanthemum-flowered 154 

New Rose 154 

Paeony-flowered 154 

Balsam 155 

Bartonia 157 

Basil 149 

Bean, Castor-Oil 182 

Bean-Hyacinth... 165 

Beans, Bush 36 

Pole 33 

Black "Wax 36 

Butter 36 

Early Valentine 36 

Golden Wax. . . 37 

Lima 33 

London Horticultural 35 

Speckled Cranberry 35 

Scarlet Runner 36 

Wax 36 

White Kidney 37 

Beets 37 

Bassano 37-40 

Dewing's Blood Turnip 40 

Early Blood Turnip 38 

Egyptian Blood Turnip 37 

Long Smooth Red 38 

Borage 146 

Boxes, Window 22 

Brachycome 158 

Cabbages 42 

Early 43 

Early York 44 

Flat Dutch 45 

Fottler's Drumhead 44 

Harris' Short-stem Drumhead. 45 
Henderson's Summer 44 

(188) 



Cabbages— Jersey Wakefield 44 

Late ... 45 

Marblehead Mammoth 45 

Premium Flat Dutch 45 

Savoy 47 

Second Early 44 

Stone-Masoii 45 

Winningstadt 44 

Calendula 160 

Calliopsls 160 

Callirrho?. 161 

Candytuft. 158 

Carmiiiia 159 

Put e White 159 

Sweet-scented White 159 

Canna 160 

Capsicum 97 

Caraway 148 

Carrots 49 

Early Short Horn 52 

Half Long 52 

Long Orange 52 

White Belgian 52 

Castor-Oil Bean 182 

Catchfly 161 

Cauliflower 47 

Early Paris 48 

Erfurt Earliest Dwarf 48 

Lenormand 48 

Walcheren .-. 48 

Celeriac 60 

Celery 52 

Boston Market 60 

Dwarf Crimson 60 

Dwarf White 60 

Setting out the Plants 55 

Sowing the Seed 53 

Storing for Winter 58 

Turnip-rooted 60 

Celosia 162 

China Asters 152 

Cockscomb 162 

Cold Frames 26 

Competition in Crops 17 

Convolvulus 16& 



I]S"DEX. 



189 



Conyolvnlus, Tricolor 162 

Coreopsis 160 

Coriander. 146 

Corn, Pop 64 

Com Salad 65 

Com. Sweet 61 

Crosby's Sugar 63 

Moore's Early Concord 63 

Russell's Prolific 63 

Stowell's Evergreen 63 

Cress— Peppergrass 66 

Water 66 

Crops, Competition in 17 

Cucumbers 69 

Early Frame 69 

Green Cluster 69 

Improved Long Green 69 

Eussian 69 

White Spine 69 

Daisy, Swan Eiver 158 

Delphinium 164 

Dianthus 163 

Chinensis 163 

Heddewigii 163 

Digitalis 165 

Dill 149 

Dolichos f 165 

Drammond'a Phlox 176 

Egg Plant 70 

Endive 71 

Fennel 147 

Flowers, Cultivation of 150 

Forget-Me-Not 171 

Foxglove 165 

Garden, an Old and a New 8 

Gardening for Boys 9 

Gardening, How to Begin — 10 

Gilia tricolor 166 

Golden Bartonia 157 

Green Manures 12 

Gumbo 79 

Heart's-ease 171 

Helianthus 166 

High Farming 15 

Hot-bed, to make a 25 

Hyacinth Bean 165 

Implements 21 

Acme Harrow 21 

Gang-Plow 21 

Harrow, Acme 21 

Harrow, Revolving 21 

Harrow, Smoothing 21 

Indian Cress 78 



Indian Shot 166 

Insects 26 

Army-worm 29 

Cabbage- worm 27 

Currant-worm . . 29 

Paris Green for 28 

Potato-bug 29 

Squash-bug. . . 30 

Striped-bug 27 

White Hellebore for 28 

Ipomoea purpurea 162 

Japan Pink 163 

Kaulfussia 167 

Kohl Eabi 71 

•' Lady's Slipper," 155 

Lamb's Lettuce 65 

Larkspur 164 

Branching 164 

Rocket 164 

Lavender 147 

Leaf Mould 22 

Lettuce 72 

Cos 72 

The Deacon 72 

London Purple 29 

Lupine 167 

Malope 169 

Mangel Worzel 40 

Carter's Yellow Globe 41 

Harris' Yellow Globe 41 

Long Red 41 

Sutton's Yellow Globe 41 

Yellow Globe 41 

Manures 19 

How to Treat H 

Green 12 

Marigold Pot 160 

Marjoram, Sweet 145 

Marvel of Peru 171 

Melon, Musk 73 

Cassaba 74 

Early Christiana 74 

Green Citron 74 

Japanese . . 74 

Nutmeg 74 

Melon, Water 75 

Black Spanish 77 

Citron 77 

Ice Cream 77 

Mountain Sweet 77 

Mignonette 168 

Mimosa 170 

Mirabilis 171 



190 



INDEX. 



Morning Glory 162 

Dwarf 163 

Tall 162 

Moss for Seeds 22 

Muck, Dried 23 

Mustard 77 

Myosotis 171 

Nasturtium 78 

Okra 79 

Onions 80 

Early Red Globe 83 

Large Red Wethersfleld 83 

White Globe 83 

Yellow Danvers 83 

Onion, Potato 88 

Seed 87 

Sets 86 

Top 89 

Tree 89 

Oyster Plant 107 

Pansy 171 

Paris Green, To Use 28 

Parsley S9 

Parsnip 90 

Hollow Crown 91 

Long White Dutch 91 

Seed 92 

Peas 92 

Buggy 97 

Dwarf 96 

Dwarf, American Wonder 96 

Dwarf, Little Gem 96 

Dwarf, Tom Thumb 96 

Champion of England 95 

Extra Early Kent 95 

Kentish Invicta 95 

Sweet 174 

White Marrowfat 95 

Pepper 97 

Bell 97 

BullNose 97 

Pepper-Grass 66 

Petunia 175 

Phlox, Drummond's 176 

Pinks, Japan 163 

Poisons— London Purple 27 

for Insects 27 

The Care of 30 

Pop Corn 64 

Poppy 180 

Opium 180 

Paeony-flowered 180 

Ranunculus-flowered 180 



Potatoes 98 

Beauty of Hebron 98 

Early Rose 98 

Early Vermont 98 

Portulaca 181 

Pot Marigold 160 

Pumpkins 99 

Connecticut Field 100 

Large Cheese 100 

New Jersey Sweet 100 

Possum-Nose 100 

Purslane 181 

" Pussley," 181 

Quack-Grass, To Kill 13 

Radishes— Summer 100 

French Breakfast 102 

Rose, Olive-shaped 102 

Scarlet Turnip 102 

White Turnip 102 

Radishes — Winter 104 

Black Spanish 105 

California Mammoth White. .. 105 

Chinese Rose-colored 105 

Chinese White 105 

Radish Seed 102 

Rhubarb 105 

Gaboon's Seedling 107 

Linnsens 107 

Victoria 107 

Ricinus 182 

Rosemary 146 

Rue 148 

Sage 141 

Salpiglossis 182 

Salsify 107 

Savory, Summer 144 

Winter 144 

Scallions 83 

SeaKale 109 

Sensitive Plant 170 

Soil for Seed Boxes 22 

Soil, Preparation of 12 

Spinach 110 

Prickly-seeded Ill 

Round-seeded Ill 

Squash— Summer 112 

Early Bush Crookneck 113 

Early Bush Scollop 113 

Squash— Winter 113 

Hubbard 114 

Marblehead 114 

Seed 115 

Starting Plants 23 



\ 



INDEX. 



191 



Stocks, Ten Weeks' 183 

Summer Savory 144 

Sunflower 166-184 

California Double 184 

Double 184 

HollowGlobe 184 

Many-flowered. . . , 184 

Single 166 

Swan River Daisy 158 

Sweet Aly ssum 150 

Sweet Corn .' 61 

Swfeet Herbs 141 

Sweet Marjoram 145 

Sweet Peas 174 

Sweet Potatoes 116 

Nansemond 117 

Ten Weeks' Stocks 183 

Thyme 143 

Broad-leaved 144 

Evergreen 144 

Hardy Winter 144 

Tomatoes 117 

Acme 123 

General Grant 123 



Tomatoes, Hathaway' s Excelsior .. 123 

Hubbard's Curled-leaf 123 

Trophy 123 

Raising Seed 123 

Tropaeolum 73 

Turnips 124 

Autumn 125-139 

Early Winter 126-138 

Purple Top Strap-leaf 139 

RutaBaga 126 

Swedes 126 

Swedes, Gathering 134 

Yellow Aberdeen 126-138 

Turnip-rooted Celery 60 

Vegetable Oyster 107 

Verbena 185 

Watermelons 75 

Weeds— Quack-Grass 13 

To Kill 13 

White Hellebore, To Use 28 

Window Boxes 22 

Wormwood 148 

Zinnia 187 




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